Sports writing (EFE)
“It means a lot to me, it’s a great honor and a great responsibility,” Ceferin said as soon as he was re-elected to take the reins of UEFA, a position he has held since September 14, 2016, and in which he faces his third term with the defense of European football, unity, solidarity and sporting merit as the flag, after a mandate conditioned by the pandemic, the Super League and the war in Ukraine and with changes in competitions since 2024, such as the Champions League, which it will increase its teams to 36, or the League of Nations, which will have a new knockout round.
Born in Grosuplje, Slovenia, on October 13, 1967, Ceferin has also been the president of the Slovenian Football Association (NZS). He graduated in Law from the University of Ljubljana and worked in the family law firm, where he succeeded his father as director and continued the practice of defending victims without recourse in cases of human rights violations free of charge.
Thus, in 2006, he represented the Strojan gypsy family, which was expelled from their town of origin in Slovenia, a fact that at that time led to a political scandal due to the attitude of the authorities.
As a lawyer, he specialized in criminal and commercial matters, dealing with issues related to professional athletes and sports clubs.
In 2005 he joined the board of directors of KMN Svea Lesna Litija, a prominent futsal team in his country, and of the amateur football team FC Ljubliana Lawyers, to join the executive committee of NK Olimpija Ljubliana, a team between 2006 and 2011. that went back from the Third Division to the First Division in the 2009-10 season.
In February 2011 he was elected president of the Slovenian Football Association, in which he was re-elected in February 2015, as the sole candidate.
As head of his country’s federation, he was able to attract more spectators to the stadiums, improve media coverage and locate the organization in a new, modern and well-equipped headquarters in the town of Brdo pri Kranj, north of Ljubljana.
Within UEFA he held the second vice-presidency of its Legal Committee and was a member of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee.
On September 14, 2016, he was chosen to succeed Michel Platini at the head of UEFA by beating Michael van Praag, president of the Dutch Federation, by 42 votes to 13; At the UEFA Congress on February 7, 2019 in Rome, in which he was the sole candidate, he was re-elected by acclamation as head of the body that governs continental football. Furthermore, in October 2022, he confirmed his intention to run for re-election.
At this stage, UEFA approved in 2022 the new Champions League from the 2024-2025 season. In addition, FIFA and UEFA decided in February 2022 to suspend all Russian national teams and clubs from participating in competitions both, which meant the exclusion of Russia from the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Recently, regarding the ‘Negreira case’ of possible corruption, Ceferin stated that he considers that the situation of FC Barcelona is “exceptionally serious”.
Since his arrival in office due to the crisis that triggered the FIFA corruption case in 2015, Ceferin has increased his authority in Europe and international football in seven years, with firm actions and messages against the “egoism” that for him it means the Super League or the “strong condemnation of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine”.
To this were added immediate decisions. He moved the last Champions League final from St. Petersburg to Paris, 24 hours after Russia entered Ukraine; three days later he broke the contract with Gazprom, the Russian energy company to which UEFA had been linked since 2012, and clubs and teams from Russia and Belarus were excluded from their competitions.
He showed the same firmness when FIFA defended a World Cup every two years, which Ceferin described as “a populist project that would destroy football”, and especially with the Super League, his main workhorse since it burst onto the scene before UEFA opened its annual congress on April 20, 2021.
Statements such as that “the Super League is the result of the greed, selfishness and narcissism of some”, or that its defenders “believe that they are great and untouchable, but if today they are giants it is thanks in part to UEFA, which for 60 years has protected the ideal of competitions, they are based on sporting merit” have been a constant.
The case awaits the decision of the Court of Justice of the EU, scheduled for this spring, which will be binding for the Commercial Court number 17 of Madrid and resolve the complaint that the promoters of the Super League filed against UEFA and FIFA for abuse of position dominant against European regulations.
Before the breach of the Super League, which is backed by Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus, Ceferin had to react to the pandemic, with difficult decisions such as postponing the 2020 Euro Cup until 2021, releasing €236.5 million to help the federations and €70 million to the clubs. He recently celebrated that these have increased revenue by 4.6% on average.
Solidarity is one of the principles to which Ceferin appeals in the decisions of the organization, which, through its Foundation, has created an aid fund for Ukraine and has donated €200,000 for the victims of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
Women’s football and the environment also have a place in their diary. Four years ago, UEFA launched “Time for Action”, its first strategy for the former to reach the figure of 2.5 million practitioners in 2024 and in December 2021 it approved its 2030 Football Sustainability Strategy, to respect the human rights and the environment in the context of European football.
Luis Rubiales, president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has been re-elected as a member of the UEFA Executive Committee for the next four years.
