FIFA Vice President and head of the Spanish Football Federation (RFER) Angel Maria Villar has been arrested in Spain in an anti-corruption operation. 

Angel Maria Villar is suspected of defrauding his national federation, a judicial source told the AFP news agency.

His son Gorka and several other executives are also being held as part of an inquiry into international match fixing, AFP reported.

Villar was fined more than 20,000 euros in 2015 by world football’s governing body for failing to co-operate with an investigation into the controversial awarding of the 2018 World Cup. His punishment was not heavier because he subsequently contributed to the investigation, the organisation said at the time.

He spent the bulk of his playing career as a midfielder at Athletico Bilbao in the 1970s and won 22 caps for Spain before retiring and rising to head the national football federation in 1988.