Former UEFA President Michel Platini on Wednesday said that his conscience is clear despite accusations of corruption after Slovenian Aleksander Ceferin was elected the seventh president of European football’s ruling body.
Advertisement
The 48-year-old beat van Praag by 42 votes to 13, with each of UEFA’s 55 member associations having one vote in the election. It means a lot to me. “My small and attractive Slovenia is also very proud about it. Thank you very much”, the Slovanian was quoted as saying by goal.com.
“What I know is that I’m a team player, a man of conviction, a passionate man and a man of his word. It is what I promise to all of you today”.
Ceferin will complete Platini’s four-year term through 2019 while the disgraced former France captain returns to his FIFA-imposed exile to continue serving a four-year ban over an improper payment.
“Losing is not nice, but I have to thank everyone for the open and clear campaign”, he said. I don’t want to live in an empire of fear where every day we wake and see another negativity surfacing.
“I hope that based on the foundations laid out by Platini he will improve UEFA”, Mutko added.
New UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says he will make a review of the recent Champions League reforms his first priority. “Friends of football, farewell”, said Platini, who was first elected in 2007. From the heart, thank you to you.
Ceferin surprised people when he took over the presidency of Slovenia’s football association, the NZS, in 2011 and quickly joined FIFA’s disciplinary committee and UEFA’s legal committee.
“The most important thing is to give that leadership back to UEFA that clearly we have not had since Michel Platini had to step down a year ago”, UEFA vice-president David Gill said.
“I want to bring out all the good things UEFA has been doing and you have been doing”. (…) Today, the wind of change is blowing through European football.
The 61-year-old was banned from all football related activities for six years in December after being found to have received a “disloyal payment” by Swiss investigators.
“He has been a very progressive and extremely innovative leader in his native Slovenia and his successful candidacy would be a very positive move for European football and the administration as a whole”.
Despite the ban, he was allowed by FIFA’s ethics committee to address UEFA delegates as a “gesture of humanity” and, as expected, took the opportunity to again deny any wrongdoing.
Advertisement
“You are going to continue this wonderful mission without me, for reasons that I won’t go into”, said Platini.
