Spanish football boss Angel Maria Villar has promised democracy and transparency if he is elected as president of European football’s ruling body UEFA next month.

Villar’s manifesto for his bid was published on the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) website this week and was based on three pillars.

The first was “the evolution and protection of our organisation towards the best practices of good governance, transparency and democratic participation”.

The others were the development and promotion of football around Europe “guaranteeing equal opportunities for everyone”, and the “protection of the game and the players.”

Dutchman Michael van Praag and Slovenian Aleksandar Ceferin are also contesting the election in Athens on September 14. Like Villar, they are presidents of their countries’ football federations.

Villar, who has been RFEF president since 1988, is a former Athletic Bilbao and Spain midfielder who has sat on the executive committee of global football body FIFA since 1998 and on its UEFA equivalent since 1992.

Villar was fined 25,000 Swiss francs ($26,000) last year by FIFA’s Ethics Committee for failing to co-operate with an investigation into the contest to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

He presided over the most successful era in the history of the Spanish national team, who won successive European Championships in 2008 and 2012 and the World Cup in 2010.

The UEFA election has been called to find a replacement for Frenchman Michel Platini, who has been banned for four years for ethics violations.

Platini was re-elected in 2015 and the winner will complete his mandate which runs until 2019.