Spaniard Angel Maria Villar, the interim head of UEFA, will run for the presidency of European soccer's governing body, Spain's football federation (RFEF) said in a statement on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Villar, the RFEF president, has been acting head of UEFA since October 2015, when Michel Platini was suspended from all football-related activities. Villar's rivals include Aleksandar Ceferin, Slovenia's football boss, who has claimed to have support from almost one third of UEFA's member associations. Dutchman Michael van Praag is also a candidate in the Sept. 14 election to replace Platini, who has been banned from football for four years for ethics violations. Villar is a former midfielder for Athletic Bilbao and a Spain international. He was one of the founding members of the Spanish Footballers' Association (AFE). He was elected president of the RFEF in 1988, winning seven consecutive elections, most recently in 2012. Villar is also a vice-president of FIFA. Last year he was fined 25,000 Swiss francs by the organisation's Ethics Committee for failing to cooperate with their investigation into the contest to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Villar presided over the most successful era in the history of the Spanish national team, who won successive European Championships in 2008 and 2012 and the World Cup in 2010.
