The victor of tomorrow’s election in the Greek capital will complete the term of disgraced former UEFA President Michel Platini, who is now serving a four-year ban for breaching FIFA’s Code of Ethics.
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The federations of the candidates, Michael van Praag of the Netherlands and Aleksander Ceferin of Slovenia, can also vote.
Van Praag said it was wrong to point the finger at UEFA and that the ECA was not run democratically and added: “In the ECA, there are clubs with eight votes, 10 votes, others have three votes, and I know that on the board of the ECA, the big clubs are always in the majority so the mid-size and small clubs never have a chance”. This congress must be all about the future, not concern itself with being addressed about the past. Van Praag is also confident of landing support from Spain after their association president Angel Maria Villar Llona pulled out of the race for the UEFA job last week.
He was elected president of the Royal Dutch Football Federation in 2008 and re-elected five years later and has been on UEFA’s executive committee since 2009.
“UEFA is not very broken – public opinion is worse than actually UEFA is”, Ceferin said. A deal being prepared by UEFA should end threats by some elite clubs to break away and form a closed European Super League before 2021.
Ceferin is concerned lower-ranked leagues like Slovenia will suffer as a result of Spain, Germany, England, and Italy being guaranteed four Champions League places each from 2018-21, rather than 11 now between them, following the deal in August.
The CAS justified a severe sanction because of Platini’s standing in world football at the time – UEFA president, FIFA vice president – as well as “the absence of any repentance and the impact that this matter has had on FIFA’s reputation”.
Platini was re-elected for a second time last year but resigned in May after being banned for four years by FIFA’s ethics committee for unethical conduct.
Both candidates criticised the way in which the Champions League changes were made.
Like Van Praag, he is keen to support the growth of the women’s game.
UEFA last month announced changes to its flagship Champions League competition, opening up more places to teams from Spain, England, Germany and Italy and cutting those allocated to the rest.
Coming from an eastern European country of two million, the lawyer said he will have the interests of the whole continent at heart rather than just the powerful and wealthy.
The European Championship has been staged only in one country or co-hosted by neighbours, but Platini chose to take the tournament across the continent to 13 cities for the first time in 2020.
“I’m not the president so I have no influence on that”, he said.
Some observers believe he has already done that by persuading France to back Ceferin but even a win for his preferred replacement will not be easy for a proud man who believes he should be here in Infantino’s seat, not relying on favours to make a more dignified farewell.
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“In all, he has a proven track record across domestic and worldwide matters that can only help Uefa go forward”.
