In the recently concluded Athens Extraordinary UEFA conference, Aleksander Ceferin was elected as the new President of the association. Ceferin defeated Michael van Praag in the elections winning convincingly by 42 votes to 13 and succeeded Michel Platini as the UEFA President.
The former Slovenia FA President, who has a background in law, was all smiles as told the UEFA delegates, "It is a great honour, but also a great responsibility. It means a lot to me. My small and beautiful Slovenia is very proud of it, and I hope that one day you will also be proud of me."
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While he found support from the likes of the Scottish Football Association, others like the England Football Association supported his opposition.
"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. 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.
"You can say that I am young and inexperienced but I honestly think it disrespectful for all small and medium-sized federations who, 365 days a year, have to do more with less."
Michel Platini, who was accused of ethical violation, was held guilty in December 2015 for accepting a payment of 2 million Swiss Francs ($2m) from FIFA in 2011. This resulted in him getting banned from football leaving his throne empty.
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As reported earlier, acting UEFA President Angel Maria Villar withdrew from the contest last week. Ceferin and Van Praag were the only two competitors for the role. In an interview to ESPN FC, Ceferin had revealed his ideas and how he would like to change the way European football is run.
"First and foremost, I will look to change to the UEFA statutes to include term-mandate limitations for the president and UEFA executive committee.
"I don't believe that officials serving for 20 or more years in such key positions is healthy for any organisation. I would put more emphasis on battling match fixing, which is a disease on our sport, by introducing more security and integrity.
"Thirdly, I would change the bidding process for big competitions and finals for the Champions League, European Championship and other major events. This needs to become completely transparent."
