UEFA

Ceferin: “I am Right”

The Dutchman Michael van Praag and the Slovenian Aleksander Ceferin want to become the new UEFA President. The choice is leading the way, both candidates are promising reforms are also urgently needed.

The Slovenian candidate, Aleksander Ceferin

This Wednesday could be a sport politically historic day, but at least he is pointing the way. It is nothing other than the future of European football. The 55 member associations of the European football Union (UEFA) in Athens, their new President, the successor to the corruption locked Michel Platini. The world football body FIFA has found its new President, now Europe’s turn. It is the next, for years to come, a defining choice for the business of football. Two candidates on the vote: Michael van Praag, boss of the Dutch, and Aleksander Ceferin, head of the Slovenian football Association.

Michael van Praag, was 68, shortly before the UEFA age-limit of 70 years, until a few weeks ago as the favorite. Once President of Ajax Amsterdam, President of the Dutch League and in the 2015 FIFA presidential candidate against Sepp Blatter. Now he says: “a Lot of things are gone in the last few years wrong. It is important that the environment has confidence in the UEFA, and trust has to be decided, such as the things. And that’s why I think it’s important that we change something quickly.” But how credible are his statements? Van Praag sitting by himself for seven years on the Executive Committee, the Executive Committee of UEFA. And the first reforms, such as in the FIFA initiated by the Executive Committee or the member associations. Quite to the contrary.

The lack of democracy and participation

The Status quo in the UEFA reads like the epitome of a lack of democracy and participation: There are no external ethics Commission, not a control instance, a so-called Compliance Committee. So far, a woman sits just to the Executive Committee. The salaries of Executive Committee members and the President of UEFA, continues to be not open to the public. But it is precisely this, 16 people have been going to the European championship – in a secret ballot.

All of this will change van Praag now, he says. In the ARD sports show and the WDR magazine “sport inside”, he says, for the first time that the Congress should in future be awarded the EURO, so that more people decide than just the small body. FIFA had changed the future world Cup Awards over the years.

The Dutchman Michael van Praag wants to give the UEFA Congress more Power

Van Praag offers the more detailed program that sets out clear reforms as Aleksander Ceferin. Also wants to you, but the transparency of salaries and the procurement of EM are for him not an issue. “I think,” says the 48-year-old Ceferin, “it must be some change. A new Wind, new ideas. And for that, I am the Right one.”

An influential lawyer and a powerful man

But who is this Aleksander Ceferin at all, the man who is at once the favourite to be Europe’s football boss items? If you listen in Slovenia, when you talk to people that know him, you learn a lot about the smart, therefore, coming Ceferin. A fighter, some call him. Not because of his black belt in Karate, not because it is five Times the Sahara crossing, for the last Time together with the family and his three daughters. But because Ceferin is a powerful man, intelligent and calculated. He knows what Power feels like and how to use them. Born into a powerful and rich family, he has taken on now one of the most influential law firms in Slovenia, of his father Peter.

The question is: Can one who defends like he’s oligarchs, corrupt politicians and drug dealers, Europe’s football after the scandals to Platini, world Cup 2006, and FIFA’s back in the credibility of track? In one of only two international television Interviews, he answers in the ARD sports show and the WDR magazine Sport Inside. “This is my Job, and I’m glad I’m good at it. And it is a great achievement of democracy.”

Lack of ethics and ignorance?

Who reigns soon at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon?

But in Slovenia there are still more to blame, you’re hardly in public, and they are complicated. An example: Ceferin is considered good, but very researchers attorney, say all of that had to do with him in court. Behind the Scenes it is all of a sudden, Ceferin have broken the code of Ethics of the Slovenian bar Association. Novel Zavrsek, President of the bar Association of Slovenia, confirmed the. “Yes, there was a complaint, because he has spoken to an open case. The ethics Commission found that inappropriate.” Ceferin says that he had only told the public what had confirmed to the court afterwards.

Next example: The football club NK Koper just got a license for the 1. League – in spite of million in debt. Behind the Club is a client of Ceferin. For this purpose, the UEFA presidential candidate in the sports show “sport inside says”: “We knew that NK Koper has this debt. We could not know it.” This is hardly surprising, because in recent years, there has been reported publicly about the debts of the Association.

Opaque Game

The basic question remains: How can it be that a hitherto almost Unknown seems to be supposedly half of all associations to have? Including Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, and large parts of Eastern Europe. Ceferin is considered to be well-organized, as a NetWorker, one who likes to be doing things and changed. Age 48 years, many organizations see it as an advantage to be able to finally be with the old structures to clean up.

But it is also clear that the Russians have operated for him intense lobbying. Even FIFA chief Infantino, it is said. Ceferin, myself, have promised the Nordic countries, the European championship. A lie, he says – and that no one can organize his campaign from the outside, or as a consultant. He was also not controlled by any foreign Power.

The election of the new President of UEFA, remains an opaque game of Power. Two Of The Candidates. A Slovenian as a clear favorite. The hope for reforms in the Luggage. After the election on Wednesday in Athens will show how serious the new chief of the European football with change, then, means really.