New Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin has vowed that European football’s governing body will take the fight to big clubs over the allocation of Champions League places and beef up financial fair play (FFP) rules.
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“You can say that I am young and inexperienced but I honestly think it disrespectful for all small and medium-sized federations who, 365 days a year, have to do more with less”.
“It is a great honor, but also a great responsibility”.
Shortly after the result of the vote was announced, Ceferin told the delegates at the extraordinary UEFA Congress in Athens that he and was proud to be the new UEFA president.
“My small and lovely Slovenia is very proud about, it and I hope one day you will also be very proud of me”, Ceferin told UEFA delegates.
“Losing is of course not nice, but I have to thank everybody for the open and clear campaign”, he said.
England’s Football Association last week declared its support for Van Praag, who – unlike Ceferin – is a member of Uefa’s executive committee.
Ceferin’s most pressing tasks include reassuring the smaller associations in UEFA over recent changes to the Champions League which favour bigger countries and the bidding process for the 2024 European Championships.
Despite Platini’s ban from all football-related activities, he was allowed to give an outgoing speech at the congress in Athens, in which he professed innocence.
Infantino said it was a “pity” critics suggested he influenced the election of one of soccer’s six regional confederations that sit under Federation Internationale de Football Association.
He said: “We can be proud of what we have achieved but there is a long way to go and a lot we need to do to make sure that football stays the same one game”. I think we did a great job …
“I hope one day you will be proud of me too”.
The European Club Association, which is the independent body directly representing football clubs at European level, congratulated Ceferin following his election and expressed a desire to build a positive working relationship.
Ceferin becomes the seventh president in UEFA’s history.
“I was never behind the scenes but obviously, as I said, people trust me and nobody behind the scenes can have 42 votes”, he said.
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“I want to bring out all the good things UEFA has been doing and you have been doing”.
