Villar Llona is no Angel
ANGEL Maria Villar Llona, the English-hating Spanish Football Federation president, has finally been brought to account — arrested along with his son Gorka and three other football officials as part of an anti-corruption probe in Spain. They were charged with improper management, misappropriation of funds, corruption and falsifying documents.
Villar Llona has been at the centre of global football for 30 years, working closely with cronies on the FIFA executive, most of whom are now facing corruption charges.
Villar Llona also refused to co-operate with the Garcia report into the murky 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids, about which a Portuguese colleague said before the vote: ‘All the fish is sold.’ Gorka worked as director-general for three South American confederation (CONMEBOL) presidents, who all face multiple corruption charges. lAFTER
investing £900m on supplying Chelsea’s kit for the next 15 years, you might imagine Nike would be more clued up about the plans for the season than to include new Watford signing Nathaniel Chalobah in their parade of Chelsea players in the window of their flagship Oxford Street store. THE All England Club are planning to spend part of their Wimbledon tournament fortune improving their community tennis centre at nearby Raynes Park.
It was opened by Andy Murray before last year’s Wimbledon tournament with six hard courts — three inside and three outside — plus six grass courts.
The plan is to greatly add to these tennis facilities with space on a big site to provide a grassroots hub that will help Wimbledon answer complaints that they don’t do enough — certainly in comparison with the Australian Open — to encourage kids.
Meanwhile, the Lawn Tennis Association have done a U-turn on hapless former CEO Michael Downey’s doomed blueprint to turn their extravagant £40m Roehampton centre from a specialist elite HQ into a more all-round facility. Now Roehampton is reverting back to being the base for the leading British players. c.sale@dailymail.co.uk and twitter.com/charliesale