The veteran Federation Internationale de Football Association and UEFA vice president received little support ahead of the September 14 contest against Aleksander Ceferin of Slovenia and UEFA vice president Michael van Praag of the Netherlands.
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Van Praag subsequently said he was “shocked” at the revelations and suggested Ceferin is a “power hungry politician” that can not be trusted in an angry outburst on Twitter.
Angel Maria Villar’s decision has left Slovenian Aleksandar Ceferin and Dutchman Michael van Praag vying for the top job.
Villar will remain an influential voice beyond Spain’s borders, however, thanks to his positions as a vice-president of the Federation Internationale de Football Association council and the UEFA executive committee.
But Van Praag tweeted on Tuesday that he was “shocked’ after reading the Josimar article”.
Villar had an global playing career, representing Spain 22 times and making over 350 appearances in a 10-year spell with Athletic Bilbao.
But as football attempts to improve its image following corruption scandals in FIFA and UEFA, the former global midfielder’s association with the “old guard” had been seen as potentially hurting his chances when he announced his candidacy in July.
Ceferin – a practising lawyer – said “it is a lie” that Infantino’s advisor Siem told him he had the Federation Internationale de Football Association chief’s support and that he “never promised the Nordics that they will host any Euro”. “Everybody knows that that is decided by the [executive committee] and not by the president – they never said that they will place a bid for the Euro”.
“I never promised Karl-Erik Nilsson he would become an ExCo member”.
A new President was necessitated as Frenchman Platini is now serving a four-year ban from football due to a payment he received from former FIFA head Sepp Blatter.
Nearly completely unknown outside of Slovenia, where he has been involved in football for a decade, Ceferin has built a reputation as a moderniser and an able negotiator, who lacks any links to FIFA or UEFA’s recent troubled past.
It added that major associations such as that of France, Russia and Germany had already chose to vote for Ceferin.
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Each one of UEFA’s 55 member nations has one vote in the contest.
