Spanish football boss to run for UEFA top job

Spain’s football association said Tuesday that its boss Angel Maria Villar would seek to replace the banned Michel Platini as the president of UEFA, the third official candidate for the top job.

“Angel Maria Villar has made official his candidacy for the next elections for the UEFA presidency,” the Royal Spanish Football Association said in a brief statement of the vote that takes place in September.

Villar is the third person to announce their candidacy after Slovenian football association boss Aleksander Ceferin and Dutch football chief Michael Van Praag.

Platini announced his resignation on May 9 after a sports tribunal rejected his final appeal against a four-year ban over a suspect two million Swiss francs ($2 million, 1.8 million euros) payment he received from world football’s governing body FIFA.

The election for the coveted post takes place in Athens on September 14.