Slovenian Aleksander Ceferin, who has headed UEFA since September 2016, is the only candidate for the next presidential election scheduled for February and is guaranteed a second term, the European federation announced on Thursday. of football.
Ceferin had succeeded Michel Platini, forced to resign in May 2016 after confirmation of its suspension by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The deadline for submitting candidatures for the presidency of UEFA was 7 November. The next UEFA elective congress will be held on February 7, 2019 in Rome. Other positions on the UEFA Council and a Vice-President will be put to the vote.
A lawyer by profession, 51-year-old Ceferin had previously chaired the Slovenian Football Federation from 2011 to 2016. Discrete and less charismatic than his predecessor, Ceferin recently made a strong opposition to the plans of his Fifa counterpart, Gianni Infantino. , former N.2 of UEFA.
As a candidate for re-election at the head of Fifa in June 2019 in Paris, Infantino is multiplying controversial proposals, including an enlarged World Club Cup and a World League of Nations, in order to enrich a record that is not unanimous.
The future in question
A 24-club World Club Championship would directly compete with the UEFA Champions League, which is now its main resource. In the face of strong opposition from UEFA, Infantino was forced to delay at the last meeting of the Fifa Council in Kigali, accepting the creation of an ad hoc committee. His two projects must be presented again at the next FIFA Council in March in Miami, where Infantino hopes to get them adopted.
Ceferin will also have to respond in the future to criticism of the alleged imbalance in European competitions between big and small leagues. The association of the European Leagues claims that for the period 2021/2024, the four major European championships (Germany, England, Spain and Italy) will no longer have 4 but 3 clubs automatically qualified for the Champions League and that the financial resources be better distributed.
The Slovenian will also have to look into the future of Financial Fair Play (FPF) put in place by his predecessor Michel Platini. This system was adopted in 2010 to avoid the excessive expenditure of clubs engaged in European competitions.
According to recent revelations of the "Football Leaks", several clubs including Paris SG or Manchester City, which risked sanctions for breaking the rules of the FPF, had seen their sanctions eased after discussion with UEFA, including Gianni Infantino, at the same time. time secretary general of the instance.