The 48-year-old appears to be the favourite, although he is little known outside Slovenia.
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Platini earlier said his “conscience is clear” as he spoke to European football’s governing body for what is likely to be the last time.
Van Praag, 68, likened himself to the “still rocking” Rolling Stones and said his age was his “USP” and his experience his greatest asset.
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“When that thing (scandal) happened to Michel Platini, the Scandinavians called me and told me “we believe you would be the flawless candidate for president”, Ceferin told Ljubljana’s daily Delo.
“It is a great honour, but also a great responsibility”, he said. It means a lot to me and my family will be very proud as will my small and lovely Slovenia. “My family is very proud about it, my small and lovely Slovenia is very proud about it and I hope one day you will be very proud of me too”. “(But) Aleksander and I are not enemies. “We are the guardians of the attractive game and I want to create a balance between all the stakeholders in our sport, a balance that keeps all stakeholders involved and none left out”. I don’t want to live in an empire of fear where every day we wake and see another negativity surfacing.
Ceferin, who is seeking to complete the presidential term of the banned Michel Platini until 2019, warned that “any Super League is out of the question”. “Too young and inexperienced?” Platini, one of the best soccer players of his generation, when he had hopes of becoming Federation Internationale de Football Association leader, said people who hadn’t played the game should not be in charge of running it.
“You are going to continue this wonderful mission without me”, Platini said.
But he told a special congress in Athens: “I am not here to emphasise the negativitites that surround us”.
“It’s not because you repeat again and again, loud and clear “I am a leader” that you are a leader”.
“ECA wishes him all the best for his upcoming challenges in representing the interests of European football at the highest level”. “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”.
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Ceferin suggested this week that UEFA had cowed to pressure from Europe’s top sides, who he claims made an empty threat to form a breakaway Super League competition if they were not given favourable treatment in the latest reforms. That phrase, perhaps, might ultimately have swayed any lingering voters his way.
