Interim ‘head’ defends: Villar

BARCELONA, Spain, July 26, (AP): The new interim head of Spain’s football federation defended Angel Maria Villar on Wednesday, saying he’d bet his life that his “friend” and the man he has replaced is innocent of corruption charges.

While Villar remains in prison without bail awaiting the outcome of a criminal investigation, the new federation president is Juan Luis Larrea, the body’s treasurer under Villar for three decades.

Larrea backed his old boss a day after Villar was suspended from his job for a year by Spain’s top sports authority, pending the outcome of the criminal investigation.

“I will never say that I am not his (Villar’s) friend,” Larrea said at the federation’s general assembly after being named Villar’s replacement. “I completely trust that the federation has been run correctly.”

Larrea will also have his chance to defend Villar in front of the National Court judge who denied Villar bail and kept him in jail. Larrea has been summoned to answer the questions of Judge Santiago Pedraz in a Madrid court on Thursday.

Villar, also FIFA ‘s senior vice president and a vice president of UEFA, was arrested last week along with his son Gorka Villar, Spanish federation vice president Juan Padron, and the secretary of the regional federation of Tenerife, Ramon Hernandez. Police accuse them of improper management, misappropriation of funds, corruption, and falsifying documents.

With Villar suspended, federation statues dictated that the job of interim president fell to Larrea as the longest-serving board member, and he must steer Spanish soccer through a crisis.

Besides being in charge of federation finances, Larrea has been the official running Spain’s national team since 1993. He has accompanied the team on six World Cups and six European Championships, helping oversee its victories at the 2010 World Cup and the 2008 and 2012 Euros.