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Angel Maria Villar resigns from UEFA, FIFA posts

July 27, 2017

The president of the Spanish football association has resigned from his posts as vice president of both UEFA and FIFA. Angel Maria Villar is currently in jail on corruption charges.

https://p.dw.com/p/2hDh7
Präsident des spanischen Fussballverbandes - Ángel María Villar
Image: Getty Images/AFP/F. Coffrini

A statement released by UEFA on Thursday announced that Angel Maria Villar had "tendered his resignation as Vice President of UEFA and member of the UEFA Executive Committee with immediate effect."

It also confirmed that UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin had accepted Villar's resignation and had thanked him for his many years of service to European football. It said that "in view of the ongoing court proceedings in Spain" UEFA would make no further comment on the matter.

Shortly afterwards, FIFA confirmed that Villar had also resigned as senior vice president of football's world governing body.

Villar, his son Gorka and two other Spanish football association (RFEF) executives were detained on July 18 on allegations of collusion, embezzlement and falsifying documents. The former Athletic Bilbao and Spain midfielder, who is being held in a Spanish jail, has denied all of the allegations related to his post as RFEF president, a post that he has held for almost three decades.

The RFEF named Juan Luis Larrea as its interim president after Villar was suspended by the Spanish sports body, the Consejo Superior de Deportes (CSD), on Tuesday.

Villar had been a member of the UEFA Executive Committee since 1992 and was one of the candidates in the race to succeed Michel Platini as its president last year. However, he withdrew his candidacy about a week before the congress in which the vote was held.

pfd/jh (Reuters, AP)