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"I have seen in football a certain megalomania, exaggeration and populism. And that is dangerous." These are the words of
Aleksander Ceferin
(Grosuplje, 1967) just a year ago when the appearance of the
Super League was
not even glimpsed. The rebellion that attacked the system, far from defeating it, has made it stronger and has reinforced the values that since its arrival to the presidency of
UEFA it
has wanted to export: cleanliness, independence and morality. In the pulse of the dispatches, he feels like a winner and magnifies his figure as a man of integrity next to the weak. "I'd rather be an innocent than a liar," he says. Since last Monday he has not hesitated to call the rebel leaders "snakes", he showed his public disappointment with
Andrea Agnelli
and he does not hesitate to point the finger at
Florentino Pérez
. "He wants a president who obeys and does what he thinks. And I try to do what I think is good for European and world football.
That he does not want a president like me is an incentive to continue,
" he assured a few hours ago in a televised interview in Slovenia. Will there be punishment or forgiveness? Neither one nor the other.
The UEFA president has never liked being set his pace.
"I will not be the puppet of anyone, at the most of my daughters," he
said as soon as he took office in September 2016 with the organization stained by the scandal of the commissions charged by his predecessor,
Michelle Platini
. '
Creating the perfect balance
' was his motto to clean the offices of Nyon, where he has cultivated his reputation as
a "cold and practical" man
, which makes more striking some comments with a certain derision that is allowed very from time to time. Despite the fact that no one knows how much he charges in front of European football,
his obsession is transparency
.
"Nobody offers me strange deals, nobody offers me anything, probably because I do not let them get close," he has insisted on more than one occasion.
It was that maxim that led him to say no to the president of
FIFA
when he wanted to open the door to a large investment fund to create a great Club World Cup.
"The agreements were confidential, so we said no."
Sport and human rights
Ceferin, from a wealthy family, came to football through the offices.
Karate black belt
, he did not pass as a midfielder in an amateur team.
His was to distribute game.
He specialized in sports law and began advising athletes and clubs from the law firm founded by his father, Peter, and which he shares with his brother Rok.
From there, he also nurtured his values in the fight against inequality, specializing in human rights to follow in the wake that his father opened after
the Balkan War.
, offering free legal assistance to victims of human rights violations.
In 2006, the Ceferin law firm confronted the Ministry of the Interior to defend 35 Roma families from the town of Ambus, whom it removed from their lands to deport them to a refugee camp.
Ceferin, in audience with Pope Francis in 2019 in Rome.EM
That same year, Aleksander had already joined the board that re-established
Olimpia Ljubljana
, with which they achieved five consecutive promotions.
It was his showcase for accessing the presidency of the
Slovenian Football Federation
in 2011 and the vice-presidency of the UEFA Legal and Ethics Committee.
In 2016, and after the Platini scandal, the body that moves four times more money than FIFA itself was elected president.
And he did it by
winning the support of the less important federations
, of the weakest.
Since then, it has not given up control, even canceled the
Euro
because "it could not allow" governments to make that decision.
Motorcycles, Africa, travel and investment in art
His friendships in football are very rare and one of the most public has betrayed him. With Andrea Agnelli he struck up a friendship that led him to agree to be the godfather of his daughter Vera and to act as a tester for a
Ferrari
, while the Italian became interested in the
art gallery
that Ceferin's wife, Bárbara, a renowned photographer, has in Ljubljana. In a country of sports expansion with figures in all disciplines, he is recognized as the second most influential Slovenian in the world, only behind
Melania Trump
. Its ostentation is much less. He does not flee from private planes or luxury hotels and restaurants, but on behalf of his position. After reelection in 2019 in the Executive Committee in Rome a hearing was allowed to
Pope Francis
, fervent football fan.
From the rest of the perks, it seems that he flees.
"When I receive an invitation for a luxury trip, for the whole family, it is clear to me, I never go," he
said in a Slovenian society magazine.
One of his passions is travel.
He has traveled the Sahara by car and motorcycle five times on different routes, and a good part of the continent with his wife and three daughters
Nina, 26, Neza, 17 and Ana, 14, who define him as a loving father, but sometimes
"strict
.
"
The same vision that he transfers to the world of football.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
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