Spanish government ready to take over football

With Angel Maria Villar in jail, the Spanish government is ready to step in and take control of soccer.

Spain's sports authority is seeking the temporary removal of Villar, the longtime president of the Spanish Football Federation and FIFA's senior vice president, after his arrest and imprisonment in an anticorruption investigation.

Inigo Mendez de Vigo, minister of education, culture and sport and the government's spokesman, said on Friday the government is prepared to take charge of the operations of the federation so Spanish soccer is not harmed by the scandal. The Higher Council of Sports said on Thursday it will ask the country's administrative court for sports to open a disciplinary procedure against Villar and three others. The council said it plans to call a meeting of its own executive committee to agree on the temporary suspension of Villar and the other federation executives. Mendez de Vigo said that meeting of the Higher Council of Sports will be on Tuesday.

The Spanish federation is in charge of national teams, the Copa del Rey, setting the calendars of the club competitions, and the appointment of referees, among other areas. It does not run the top two divisions of the Spanish men's league nor the women's league.

Spain coach Julen Lopetegui voiced no criticisms of Villar on Friday, when he completed his first year in charge of the team after Villar picked him to replace Vicente del Bosque.

Lopetegui is getting ready for the World Cup qualifier against Italy on Sept. 2. That could decide which team wins an automatic berth to the tournament in Russia next year.

The arrest of Villar, his son, and two others forced the announcement of the league calendar to be pushed back until Friday at the federation headquarters in Las Rozas, which was raided by police four days ago.

Those raids, along with others at regional federations and private properties, culminated in the arrests of Villar, his son Gorka Villar, federation vice president Juan Padron, and the secretary of the regional soccer federation of Tenerife, Ramon Hernandez.