Spain’s Football Federation president Angel Maria Villar was arrested on Tuesday as part of a probe into corruption in Spanish football. (Source: Reuters file)
Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) president Angel Maria Villar along with his son and two more federation executives were arrested on Tuesday as part of an anti-corruption probe. The office of the state prosecutor in charge of anti-corruption said they suspect Villar, who is the senior vice president in the sport’s governing body FIFA and a UEFA vice president, of having arranged matches for Spain’s national team that led to business deals that benefited his son. One of the matches under heavy speculation is Spain’s trip to Equitorial Guinea.
The state prosecutor and Spanish police said Villar, his son Gorka Villar, and two other officials from the national football body were detained while raids were carried out at the federation headquarters and other properties. Two uniformed policemen guarded the entrance to RFEF headquarters in the Spanish capital as staff went in and out of the offices near the training grounds for Spain’s national teams in Las Rozas.
The two other men who were arrested were Juan Padron, RFEF’s vice president of economic affairs who is also the president of the regional federation for Tenerife, and Ramon Hernandez, the secretary of that regional federation. The charges levelled on the four men were of improper management, misappropriation of funds, corruption and falsifying documents as part of a probe into the finances of the federations.
“We have taken note of the media reports concerning the situation of Mr. Villar Llona,” FIFA said in a statement. “As the matter seems to be linked to internal affairs of the Spanish Football Association, for the time being we kindly refer you to them for further details.” Meanwhile UEFA said in a statement that it was “aware of the reports regarding Mr. Villar Llona. We have no comment to make at this time.”
The raids were conducted as part of an operation which is code named “Soule” with the Civil Guard saying it made the arrests at the national federation’s headquarters, the offices of the regional federation on the island of Tenerife, and “headquarters of businesses and several private homes linked to the arrested individuals.”
The probe into the illegality started in early 2016 after a complaint was made by Spain’s Higher Council of Sport, the government’s sports authority. It highlighted the state prosecutor’s office to suspect that Villar “could have arranged matches of the Spanish national team with other national teams, thereby gaining in return contracts for services and other business ventures in benefit of his son.”
The prosecutor’s office said they suspect that Padron and the Tenerife secretary “favored the contracting of business” for their personal benefit. Inigo Mendez de Vigo, Spain’s minister of education, culture and sport, told RTVE, Spain’s national television, moments after the raids that “in Spain the laws are enforced, the laws are the same for all, and nobody, nobody is above the law.”
In the bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, Angel Maria Villar led the Spain-Portugal joint bid which the FIFA ethics committee briefly investigated in 2010 for allegedly arranging a voting pact involving South American voters to trade support with Qatar’s bid (Qatar will host the 2022 World Cup).
Villar’s conduct in a subsequent wider probe of the bids was pointed out in a report by then-FIFA ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia. “He (Villar) was not willing to discuss the facts and circumstances of the case,” Garcia wrote in a 2014 report that was published last month. “Moreover, his tone and manner were deeply disturbing, as the audio recording of the interview … makes evident.”
