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Suspended Spanish Football President Villar Resigns From FIFA, UEFA Positions

FIFA and UEFA said on Thursday that suspended Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) President Ángel María Villar "resigned from his senior roles with FIFA and UEFA following his arrest in Spain last week," according to Brian Homewood of REUTERS. Villar, his son Gorka and two other football federation execs were detained on July 18 on "allegations of collusion, embezzlement and falsifying documents." Villar, who has denied all allegations, "was refused bail." A FIFA spokesperson confirmed that the 67-year-old resigned from his positions as senior VP and member of the FIFA Council, on which he had sat since '98. UEFA also confirmed that Villar stood down after 25 years on its exec committee. UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin accepted Villar's resignation and "thanked him for his many years of service to European football" (REUTERS, 7/27). The AP's Graham Dunbar reported Villar exits int'l football "in disgrace" after rising to the No. 2 elected position at FIFA, as the "senior ranking" of eight VPs behind President Gianni Infantino. Despite Infantino's claim last year of the crisis ending for "scandal-scarred" FIFA, two colleagues on the ruling council resigned within three months "under a cloud of suspicion." Villar's influence had "weakened" since American and Swiss federal investigations of FIFA-linked corruption were revealed in '15. Once seen as a "potential UEFA presidential candidate," he could "not gather support to launch a bid" for the European football leadership one year ago (AP, 7/27). In London, Martyn Ziegler reported Villar is the second member of FIFA’s ruling council to have resigned within three months, following Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti royal who left FIFA three days after he was identified in a U.S. federal court case "as the source of bribes paid to an Asian football official." He denied any wrongdoing (LONDON TIMES, 7/27).

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