UEFA will be a new test of his taste for adventure and skills in keeping calm as it seeks to overcome the shock of losing ex-leader Michel Platini, implicated in FIFA’s corruption scandals, and facing challenges to its prized Champions League.
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The agenda centred on who would replace Michel Platini at the helm of European football’s governing body, with Slovenian FA President Ceferin up against his counterpart from the Netherlands, Michael van Praag.
Ceferin becomes just the seventh president in the 62-year history of UEFA and will now take on the remainder of Platini’s term, which is due to end in 2019.
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”.
“I will have to sit down with all 55 national associations to see what is the agreement and what we can do in the future about it”, he added. “Friends of football, farewell”.
MICHAEL VAN PRAAG A former amateur referee, his father Jaap van Praag was chairman of Ajax Amsterdam from 1964 to 1978 when they built a memorable team which won the European Cup three times in succession.
FIFA’s ethics committee had allowed Platini to bid farewell to UEFA, despite his ban from world football activities over financial misconduct.
“Some people may have said I’m not a leader”. “I have a clear conscience, I have not made mistakes and will continue my fight in court”.
The ethics committee of world governing body Federation Internationale de Football Association handed down an initial eight-year ban for Platini and Fifa’s then-president Sepp Blatter last year.
Platini said football was “a game rather than a product, a sport rather than a market, a show not a business”.
“You can say I am young and inexperienced but I think that’s a disrespect to all the Presidents of small and medium-sized Federations who, 365 days of the year, have to do more with less.
It’s a great honour but at the same time great responsibility”, Ceferin said on stage following his victory.
“But today democracy has spoken and I respect that”.
He said “I am not here to emphasise the negativities that surround us”.
Ceferin was not a member of UEFA’s executive committee and only hit the spotlight when he announced his intention to run in June. It means and my family is very proud about it.
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“There isn’t one football of large globalised clubs and one of Sunday league players”.
