Arrest, raids in Spain tarnish sport’s image
MADRID — The executive who oversaw Spain’s rise to dominate world soccer in recent years was arrested Tuesday in an anticorruption investigation, dealing yet another blow to the sport’s alreadytarnished image.
Angel Maria Villar, his son, Gorka Villar, and two other soccer officials were detained while raids were conducted at the federation headquarters and other properties, the state prosecutor and Spanish police said.
The elder Villar, 67, who has led the Spanish Football Federation for three decades and is the senior vice president of FIFA and a vice president for the European soccer organization, is suspected of having arranged matches for Spain that led to business deals benefiting his son, said the office of the state prosecutor in charge of anticorruption.
A former professional player, Villar has been the head of Spain’s soccer federation since 1988, overseeing the national team’s victories in the 2010 World Cup and the 2008 and 2012 European Championships.
Villar won an eighth term as president in May, running unopposed after another candidate, Jorge Perez, withdrew to protest what he called irregularities in the election of the federation’s general assembly.
Villar has been at the heart of FIFA and UEFA politics since the 1990s, and has worked closely with several international soccer leaders who since have been indicted by the U.S. Justice Department.
He led the Spain-Portugal bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup competitions. In 2010, FIFA’s ethics committee investigated an alleged voting pact involving South American countries. Russia won the bid for 2018 and Qatar won for 2022.
His conduct in a wider 2014 probe of the bids was singled out in a 2014 report by thenFIFA ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia.
A 2015 U.S. investigation into corruption in world soccer led to the eventual resignation of longtime president Sepp Blatter and other top officials.
The arrests are the latest step by Spain to crack down on financial wrongdoing in soccer. Last year, Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and his father were found guilty of tax fraud. In recent weeks, prosecutors have opened tax-fraud investigations into several others, including Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo and former Madrid coach Jose Mourinho. Ronaldo and Mourinho deny cheating on their taxes.
Several hours after Tuesday’s arrests, police escorted Villar into the federation offices in Las Rozas, on the outskirts of Madrid. He emerged from a Guardia Civil vehicle flanked by two uniformed agents. Two policemen guarded the entrance to the federation offices near the training grounds for Spain’s national teams.
Also arrested were Juan Padron, the federation’s vice president of economic affairs who is also president of the regional federation for Tenerife, and Ramon Hernandez, the secretary of that regional federation.
The four were arrested on charges of improper management, misappropriation of funds, corruption and falsifying documents as part of an inquiry into the finances of the federations.
“We have taken note of the media reports concerning the situation of Mr. Villar Llona,” FIFA said in a statement. “As the matter seems to be linked to internal affairs of the Spanish Football Association, for the time being we kindly refer you to them for further details.”
As part of an operation called “Soule,” the Guardia Civil said it raided the national federation’s headquarters, the offices of the regional soccer federation on the island of Tenerife and “headquarters of businesses and several private homes linked to the arrested individuals.”
Police began the investigation in early 2016 after a complaint from Spain’s Higher Council of Sport, the government’s sports authority.
The probe led the state prosecutor’s office to suspect that Angel Maria Villar “could have arranged matches of the Spanish national team with other national teams, thereby gaining in return contracts for services and other business ventures in benefit of his son.”
Gorka Villar, a lawyer, worked in recent years for the South American body CONMEBOL as legal director and then as the CEO-like director general for three presidents who were implicated in the U.S. investigation. Gorka Villar left CONMEBOL in July 2016.