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Spain's Villar pulls out of UEFA race

September 7, 2016

Angel Maria Villar has pulled out of the race to succeed Michel Platini as president of UEFA. This leaves just two candidates for national delegates to choose from when the vote occurs at a UEFA Congress next week.

https://p.dw.com/p/1Jwze
Spanien Fußball Angel Maria Villar Llona
Image: imago

Villar announced late on Tuesday that he had decided to withdraw from the race to become the next head of football's European governing body after several senior Spanish football officials had asked him to run for re-election as president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).

"Although I have received plenty of support to continue with my campaign, I have, after a deep reflection, decided to withdraw my candidacy," Villar, who is also the acting UEFA president, said in a statement posted on the RFEF's website.

Villar was fined 25,000 Swiss francs (24,000 euros, $26,000) last year by FIFA's Ethics Committee for failing to co-operate with an investigation into the contest to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. However, he noted in his statement that he had passed a FIFA integrity check last week.

Then there were two

Villar's withdrawal leaves two candidates - the president of Slovenia's Football Association, Aleksandar Ceferin, and his Dutch counterpart, Michael van Praag - for the election, which will occur at the UEFA Congress in Athens on September 14.

Ceferin appears to be emerging as the favorite, having won the support of more than 20 of UEFA's 55 member associations, including the German FA (DFB) and the French federation.

However, on Wednesday, England's FA came out in support of Van Praag. The FA's vice chairman said in a statement that Van Praag "would be able to provide the strong and credible leadership European football requires at a crucial moment for the global game."

Whoever wins the election will complete Platini's four-year term, which expires in March 2019.

Platini has been banned from all football-related activities by the world governing body, FIFA, over a disloyal payment of around 2 million Swiss francs (1.84 million euros, $2.07 million) that he received from then-FIFA president Joseph Blatter in 2011 for consulting work done a decade earlier.

Platinin, a former star midfielder for France and Juventus stepped down as UEFA president last May, after the Lausanne-based Court of Administration for Sport (CAS) upheld his FIFA ban.

pfd/dv (Reuters, AFP, AP)