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Platini era ends as Ceferin voted chief of UEFA
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MICHEL Platini reluctantly handed over the reins of power in European soccer to Aleksander Ceferin, a little-known Slovenian lawyer who won the UEFA presidential election by a landslide yesterday.
Ceferin will complete Platini’s four-year term through 2019 while the disgraced former France captain returns to his FIFA-imposed exile to continue serving a four-year ban over an improper payment.
Before Ceferin beat UEFA vice president Michael van Praag 42-13 in the secret ballot, Platini was given special dispensation by FIFA’s ethics judge to bid farewell to European soccer leaders. Platini assured UEFA delegates he has a “clear conscience” over the legitimacy of the 2 million Swiss francs (US$2 million) he received from FIFA in 2011 that led to his downfall four years later.
After Platini was initially suspended last October by FIFA, a political vacuum opened up in European soccer that was capitalized on by the elite clubs to influence the future of the Champions League. Ceferin’s immediate challenge is to heal the rifts created by the secret deal, which he opposes, to increase guaranteed Champions League places for clubs from the powerful leagues of England, Spain, Germany, and Italy.
“The most important thing is to give that leadership back to UEFA that clearly we have not had since Michel Platini had to step down last year,” UEFA vice president David Gill said.
With only 2 1/2 years until having to renew his mandate, Ceferin will have little time to waste to convince UEFA’s members it was right to entrust someone with only five years of experience around the governing body with its top job.
“Some people may have said that I am not a leader, that I am too young and too inexperienced to become the next UEFA president,” said Ceferin, a father-of three from Ljubljana. “It’s not because you repeat again and again, loud and clear ‘I am a leader’ that you are a leader. If you have to do it you are probably not a leader.”
Ceferin, aged 48, said combining running a law firm in the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia with leading the country’s soccer federation since 2011 required him to be “creative, strong and inspiring”.
“You can say that I am young and experienced but I honestly think it disrespectful for all small and medium-sized federations who, 365 days a year, have to do more with less,” he said.
Ceferin is the seventh president in the 62-year history of UEFA, which every four years holds the European Championship — the wealthiest competition between national teams after the World Cup. He said he speaks five languages, is a black belt in karate, and has crossed the Sahara Desert five times.
He will take charge at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, after a campaign clouded by accusations that he was being assisted by Gianni Infantino, the organization’s general secretary before being elected FIFA president in February.
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