“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”.
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Platini was elected to a third five-year-term in March last year and seemed set to take over Federation Internationale de Football Association from Blatter but was suspended in October over the payment and never returned to his office.
“Democratically chosen, he will lead UEFA into the future”. “Match-fixing is a problem, racism is a problem, security and safety in these times is a bad problem”, he said. “For everything else, I have to sit down with the 55 members and see what is the agreement and what we can do about it”.
Aleksander Ceferin is the new president of UEFA – here, we look at his background and the changes he is wants to make in European football.
Ceferin had the overt backing of Germany, France, Italy and Russian Federation while smaller nations flocked to his cause as he spoke of the need to stop the wealth gap widening between rich and poor football nations.
Having crossed the Sahara desert four times by vehicle and once on a motorbike, he clearly likes a challenge, though, and he himself listed match-fixing, racism and security as three he must address quickly.
Ceferin, a top lawyer in his country who was little known in sport until entering the election contest in June, highlighted the credibility challenges facing scandal-tainted football, along with regular accusations of match-fixing and doping.
“I’m nearly 50 years old and I’m chairing my own company and the Football Association of Slovenia for years now”.
“Just simply know that my conscience is clear”, he told the Congress during a farewell speech on Wednesday.
“This will be a thorny task”. Once his popularity grew, larger soccer powers including Germany and France pledged their backing, making Ceferin a firm favorite before the vote in Athens.
He said: “He’ll bring football together, take tough decisions and drive European football forward”.
The Frenchman, banned from all football activity for four years over a US$2 million (S$2.73 million) “disloyal payment” received from former Fifa chief Sepp Blatter, said he would continue to fight to clear his name.
“I am certain that I committed not the slightest fault”, he said.
“You are going to continue this wonderful mission without me for reasons I don’t want to go into today”.
“My family is very proud of me”, Ceferin said after his victory was announced.
However the ethics committee, in a freaky ruling last week, had cleared Platini to give what was virtually a keynote speech at the address of congress.
In 2011, he was elected president of the Slovenian Football Association and in February 2015 was re-elected for a new mandate of four years.
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The issue is still under investigation by Swiss prosecutors.
