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Thursday July 20, 2017

SPANISH Football Federation president Angel Maria Villar was arrested Tuesday along with his son and three more federation executives as part of an anti-corruption probe.

Spain’s Guardia Civil said in a statement that Villar, his son Gorka Villar, and three other soccer offi cials were detained while raids were carried out at the federation headquarters.

Villar is also a senior vice president of FIFA and senior vice president of UEFA.

Police said the other three men who were arrested were Juan Padron, the federation’s vice president of economic affairs, and the president and the sec-retary of the regional federation for Tenerife.

Police said the fi ve men were arrested on charges of improper management, misappropria-tion of funds, corruption and falsifying documents as part of

a probe into the fi nances of the federations. The raids were car-ried out by the Guardia Civil’s anti-corruption unit as part of an operation called “SOULE.”

Inigo Mendez de Vigo, Spain’s minister of education, culture and sport, told national television moments after the raids that “in Spain the laws are enforced, the laws are the same for all, and nobody, nobody is above the law.”

UEFA said in a statement it is “aware of the reports regarding Mr. Villar Llona. We have no comment to make at this time.”

The 67-year-old Villar has been the head of Spain’s soccer federation since 1988, oversee-ing its national team’s victories in the 2010 World Cup and the 2008 and 2012 European Cham-pionships.

Villar has also been at the heart of FIFA and UEFA politics since the 1990s, and has worked

closely with several international soccer leaders who have since been indicted by the U.S. Depart-ment of Justice.

His son, Gorka, worked in recent years for South Ameri-can body CONMEBOL as legal director then the CEO-like direc-tor general for three presidents who were implicated in the American federal investigation. Gorka Villar left CONMERBOL in July 2016.

Angel Maria Villar was a tough midfi elder for Athletic Bilbao and Spain before retiring to work as a lawyer and soccer administrator. He was elected to the UEFA executive committee 25 years ago, and FIFA’s ruling committee 19 years ago. He has also been an infl uential fi gure in the legal and referees commit-tees of both organizations.

Increasingly seen as a polar-izing fi gure with leadership ambitions, Villar decided against

UNCERTAINTY over the fi nal budget for the 2020 Olympic Games will continue until 2019, the head of the Tokyo Organizing Committee said Tuesday.

“We will continue to explore more cost effi ciencies,” Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto told the foreign media amid concerns regarding the

higher-than-projected costs.The estimated cost of hosting

the Games has doubled to 1.4 trillion yen (US$12.6 billion) from the 730 billion yen that was proposed when Tokyo won the bid in 2013.

Tokyo has cut some costs by shifting to temporary facilities and pre-existing ones, includ-

ing some outside Tokyo, instead of building new facilities.

Muto said 60 percent of the venues are existing ones, and 40 percent are outside Japan’s capital.

This includes plans to hold some baseball and softball games in Fukushima prefecture, the site of the nuclear plant meltdowns

that followed the 2011 earth-quake and tsunami. Muto noted that a major theme for Tokyo 2020 will be recovery from the devastating disaster of nearly a decade earlier.

Muto said construction of the controversial main stadium is well underway. (SD-Agencies)

FORMER Houston Rockets center Dikembe Mutombo is gathering the necessary resources and funding to make a bid at purchasing the franchise.

“I’m working on it,” Mutombo told FOX 26 Sports’ Mark Berman on Tuesday. “I’m talk-ing to a lot of people already. We’ll see.

“I’m just talking to the people who can cut the check and they can make me part of it. I’m work-ing on that.”

Rockets president Tad Brown announced Monday afternoon that owner Leslie Alexander intended to sell the team after 24 years, with Brown being placed in charge of coordinating the sales process with the NBA’s league offi ce.

Two years ago, Mutombo attempted to buy another former team of his when a majority stake became available in the Atlanta Hawks. A purchase by an owner-ship group led by Tony Ressler was eventually approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors, though.

Now with another shot at becoming an owner, Mutombo doesn’t want this chance to slip away from him.

“A lot of people think it’s a great thing,” Mutombo said. “It’s a great opportunity.

“Now it’s just a question of the number. There’s going to be a lot of discussion and a lot of cash.”

Mutombo spent the last fi ve years of his Hall of Fame career in a Rockets uniform. Seeing the team on the rise in the Western Conference, especially following the acquisition of All-Star Chris Paul, the former four-time Defensive Player of the Year wants to strike while the iron is hot.

“It’s like someone who’s already sitting on the runway trying to take off,” Mutombo added.

“That’s what kind of team the Rockets are right now. The Rockets are a great franchise. They have a great team. They’ve got great coaches, great basket-ball players, great staff. Whoever is coming in, it’s not like they’re going to have to rebuild it.” (SD-Agencies)

Matthews wins second Tour stage

Tokyo 2020: Budget uncertainty will continue to 2019

Police arrest Spanish soccer federation president

trying to succeed Michel Platini as UEFA president last year.

Before joining CONMEBOL, Gorka Villar was a prominent sports lawyer in Madrid. He helped represent cyclist Alberto Contador in a failed appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport against losing the 2010 Tour de France title after a positive doping test. (SD-Agencies)

Former Rockets center hoping to gather investors to purchase team

Dikembe Mutombo

Angel Maria Villar

MICHAEL MATTHEWS won a sprint to the line on Stage 16 of the Tour de France as Britain’s Chris Froome kept the yellow jersey Tuesday ahead of two dif-fi cult days in the Alps.

Heavy crosswinds played havoc in the last 30 kilometers of the 165-kilometer ride between Le Puy-en-Velay to Romans-en-Isere, causing the peloton to stretch and frequently break into several groups.

Froome and his main rivals — Fabio Aru, Romain Bardet and Rigoberto Uran — managed to stay at the front and crossed the fi nish line together.

Froome, the defending cham-pion, has an 18-second lead over Aru, with Romain Bardet 23 sec-onds back in third place.

Matthews claimed his second stage win in this race, three days after his victory in Rodez, reduc-ing the gap with green jersey holder Marcel Kittel in the best sprinter’s classifi cation.

Matthews made the most of a slightly uphill section 500 meters from the line and accel-erated after Greg Van Avermaet launched the sprint. Matthews then resisted Edvald Boasson Hagen’s late surge to prevail by a wheel’s length. John Degenkolb completed the podium.

The day’s big loser was Irish rider Dan Martin, who was caught in a split in the fi nale and lost 51 seconds, dropping to seventh place overall.

On a diffi cult terrain with constant up-and-downs across the lush forests of Massif Cen-tral, several attacks took place during the fi rst hour of racing. With gusts of wind up to 65 kilometers, the peloton split, with Kittel getting dropped in a group struggling at the back.

Kittel could not count on teammate Philippe Gilbert to bring him back as the former world champion did not start

the stage in Le Puy-en-Velay due to gastroenteritis. Standing 12th overall, Lotto NL Jumbo rider George Bennett had a bad day and dropped out about 100 kilometers from the fi nish.

Looking to increase the pres-sure on Kittel, Matthews’ Sunweb team hardened the race at the front, joining forces with other sprinters’ teams to increase the gap to more than three minutes with 75 kilometers remaining.

Caught in the split with Kittel, Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni did not give up the chase and man-aged to bridge the gap after an impressive effort with his Cofi dis teammates before Matthews won the intermediate sprint.

On long and fl at sections vul-nerable to wind, Froome’s Sky team rode at the front, making sure their leader would not miss out on possible splits. (SD-Agencies)

Team Sunweb rider Michael Matthews of Australia reacts on the podium after winning the 16th stage of the Tour de France on Tuesday. SD-Agencies