July 25 – UEFA has confirmed the names of the three candidates vying to succeed Michel Platini as president of European football’s governing body as Slovenia’s Aleksander Ceferin, Duch FA boss Michael van Praag and controversial veteran Spaniard Angel Maria Villar who has been doing the job on an interim basis since Platini was banned in May.
Ceferin, 48, has been president of the Slovenian federation since 2011 while 68-year-old van Praag sits on the UEFA executive committee and for a time ran to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA president.
Whether all three candidates will still be in the running come election day on September 14 is open to question. Villar is understood to have Platini’s support but represents very much the old guard. Čeferin is the youngest of all candidates, a lawyer by trade and is believed to already have the backing of 22 of UEFA’s 55 members.
Meanwhile, Evelina Christillin of the Italian Football Federation and Laura McAllister, of the Football Association of Wales, have officially submitted their candidacies for the position of UEFA’s additional female member on the newly established FIFA Council.
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