UEFA vice-president Angel Villar Llona has been fined and warned by FIFA’s ethics committee for failing to co-operate with investigations into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding processes.
The Spaniard, who has been a FIFA executive member since 1998, has been fined 25,000 Swiss francs (£16,376).
The committee says Villar Llona “failed to behave in accordance with the general rules of conduct.”
At first he refused to co-operate with then-FIFA ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia and later tried to have the American lawyer thrown off the case. FIFA ethics judge Joachim Eckert imposed a lighter sanction as Villar Llona later “demonstrated a willingness to co-operate.”
In a statement, the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA’s ethics committee said: “Mr Villar Llona failed to behave in accordance with the general rules of conduct applicable to football officials in the context of the investigations conducted by the then chairman of the investigatory chamber of the FIFA ethics committee regarding the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup bids.
“As he subsequently expressed his commitment to collaborate and demonstrated a willingness to cooperate, he has been sanctioned with a warning and a fine of 25,000 Swiss francs.”
The 65-year-old, who has been the president of the Spanish football federation for 27 years, is presently the most senior official at UEFA, effectively running the organisation in the absence of the suspended president Michel Platini.
The ethics panel also imposed six-month bans on Congolese officials Jean Guy Mayolas and Badji Wantete for misconduct.
