Angel Maria Villar withdraws UEFA presidency bid as Aleksander Ceferin and Michael van Praag scrap

Angel Maria Villar has withdrawn from the UEFA presidential race, leaving the two remaining candidates squabbling over the vacant post.

Villar, who is head of Spain's football association, was considered one of the front-runners to succeed the former UEFA boss Michel Platini.

But in a surprise move on Tuesday, the 66-year-old announced that "after a profound reflection I have decided to withdraw my bid" in a statement on the Spanish FA's website.

His surprise decision leaves Slovenian FA chief Aleksander Ceferin and current UEFA vice president Michael van Praag, head of the Dutch FA, vying for European football's top job.

But the pair have become embroiled in angry exchanges following the publication of an investigation by Norwegian football magazine Josimar, in which Ceferin is accused of being FIFA president Gianni Infantino's personal choice and allegedly making promises to Scandinavian associations.

Van Praag subsequently said he was "shocked" at the revelations and suggested Ceferin is a "power hungry politician" that cannot be trusted in an angry outburst on Twitter.

The 66-year-old said: "If it is true, then we are back to the old-school way of doing business in the football world. That is exactly what I want to change. We need an honest football leader. No power hungry politician. Someone you can trust with football."

Ceferin has told Press Association Sport that the article "is almost completely not true" and forwarded an email to demonstrate some of the misquotations attributed to contributors of Josimar's report.

Ceferin - a practising lawyer - said "it is a lie" that Infantino's advisor Siem told him he had the FIFA chief's support and that he "never promised the Nordics that they will host any Euro".

He said: "Everybody knows that that is decided by the (executive committee) and not by the president. They never even said that they will place a bid for the Euro.

"I never promised Karl-Erik Nilsson he would become an ExCo member. Again it is obvious that ExCo members are voted by the congress and not appointed by the president."

In response to Van Praag's tweets, Ceferin said: "You can judge for yourself who has the methods of the old school; the one who meets federations, presents a programme and gets public support, or the one who is making up stories trying to pollute the pre-election time and desperately trying to get at least some support?"