Ceferin takes over from French ex-international midfielder Michel Platini, who resigned after being banned from all football-related activity a year ago.
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UEFA has been turmoil over the past few months, the absence of Platini since October after he was suspended following a 2 billion euro payment from Federation Internationale de Football Association, while UEFA have also faced disquiet over changes to the Champions League.
Slovenian Aleksander Ceferin heads his first executive committee meeting as new UEFA president. UEFA increased the number of places allocated to clubs from Spain, England, Germany and Italy in the lucrative group stage and cut the slots for the smaller countries. “If you have to do it you are probably not a leader”.
“This was the right decision to elect him”.
Ceferin, who has been the head of the Football Association of Slovenia since 2011, takes on the remainder of Platini’s term of office, until 2019.
Aleksander Ceferin leaves after a press conference at extraordinary UEFA congress in Athens.
Using the platform to vow to clear his name, the former France star said: “You are going to continue this wonderful mission without me, for reasons that I won’t go into”.
“This big majority shows that a lot of FAs. have a wish to get a new dynamic in UEFA from outside the executive committee”, Grindel said.
“Like Infantino, Ceferin has risen without trace, yet has beaten Michael van Praag of the Netherlands, whose outspoken criticism of Blatter over the past few years may be regarded as a blot on his company copybook”, she writes. “It’s the end of one era and start of a new one – an era which marks the end of some privileges from another time”.
Ceferin is the seventh president in the 62-year history of UEFA, which every four years organizes the European Championship – the wealthiest competition between national teams after the World Cup.
“At the same time we have to speak and have a dialogue with clubs”.
Infantino, formerly Platini’s right-hand man at UEFA, entered the Federation Internationale de Football Association presidential race, initially as a stop-gap in the expectation of Platini’s return, but gained momentum and ended up winning February’s election. “You have seen there was a democratic process”.
Platini thanked those who had supported his efforts to make a return. “I am certain that I committed not the slightest fault and that I will continue to fight this ban in the courts”.
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And it was the 61-year-old Frenchman who controversially opened the proceedings, as he was given special permission to bid farewell to the organisation he ran for eight years from 2007, despite his four-year ban from all football-related activities.
