European football’s governing body Uefa will elect its new president on Wednesday, with two candidates standing to succeed the banned Michel Platini.
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Aleksander Ceferin, a lawyer from Slovenia, is viewed as being well ahead in the race against Michael van Praag, of the Netherlands, with as many as 40 of the 55 votes in the bag.
He has also made a virtue out of Slovenia’s size and position by gaining support from Europe’s smaller countries before landing some big ones – France, Germany and Italy, for example – as the momentum behind him grew to form a coalition that bridges north, south, east and west.
Aleksander Ceferin, 49, head of the Slovenian Soccer Federation and candidate for the UEFA presidency speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Athens, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016.
Clearly moved by the occasion, Platini used most of his allotted 10 minutes to praise the organisation he led for eight years from 2007 but he started by repeating that he is innocent of any wrongdoing. “I am not a showman and I’m not a man of unrealistic promises”.
“We should stop with politics, plots, lack of transparency, self interest”.
“For millions of people around the world, football is. a flame”, Platini said.
After winning a landslide victory, Čeferin said: “It’s a great honour but at the same time a great responsibility”.
“It means a lot to me, it means me and my family are very proud. My family’s very proud about it, my small and handsome Slovenia is also proud about it and I hope one day you will also be proud of me”.
Ceferin, along with van Praag, had been a vocal opponent of plans for a European super league, with the former insisting there will be war should the big clubs force a breakaway. We have seen in the recent past what is happening if you are there for too long. Van Praag said: “Alex and myself have the same goal, look at our programmes”.
The only other candidate, the controversial Spanish acting Uefa president Angel Maria Villar Llona, pulled out of the contest earlier this month.
A document by the influential European Club Association, obtained by the AP, said “UEFA accelerated the process” in part to “avoid interference with UEFA presidential election process [to not allow the topic to be subject of political capture]”.
The sense that this really is the end of an era was immediately reinforced when new Federation Internationale de Football Association president Gianni Infantino, who had been Platini’s right-hand man at UEFA, made the next speech.
FIFA’s ethics chief Hans-Joachim Eckert described this as a “gesture of humanity” but several anti-corruption campaigners have told PA Sport it makes a mockery of Platini’s ban and the fact he is still under criminal investigation in Switzerland.
Platini was re-elected for a second time last year but resigned in May after being banned for four years by FIFA’s ethics committee for unethical conduct.
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“I have a clear conscience”. I am certain not to have made any mistake and I will continue to fight this in the courts. “We have done much together for nine years to develop and preserve this flame”. “I hope one day you will also be proud of me”. I’m proud. That’s why I wanted to say goodbye and thank you. “Friends of football, farewell”.
