By Andrew Warshaw
January 31 – Four and a half months into his UEFA presidency, Aleksander Čeferin says he’s having to work far longer hours than he imagined and has denounced those who doubted his ability – even within his own circles.
In a remarkably candid interview with Germany’s Welt Am Sonntag newspaper, Ceferin, virtually unknown before he was elected in September, says the lack of trust in football’s old-school administration worked in his favour when he crushed Dutch FA chief Michael van Praag who does not escape criticism along with everyone else who thought the Slovenian had little or no chance of victory.
“Before the election, it was to my advantage that I was not part of the establishment,” says Ceferin. “A lot of those who have been there for a long time could not believe it. Some of them laughed when they heard about my candidacy and said I wouldn’t get more than five votes. They’d lost their sense of reality. But times have changed. I know I was a good candidate – but I wouldn’t have had a chance ten years ago.”
Ceferin says the fact that he was “just the president of a small association and had no idea how things worked at FIFA and UEFA” helped his cause, with so many corruption allegations swirling around.
“When it became apparent how much money was going around and how, I just thought: ‘Now it’s time for change.’ In many sport organisations the system was not transparent enough. It couldn’t go on like that.”
Responding to claims that he was simply a puppet of the Russians, Ceferin did not mince his words saying his critics were “simply afraid” of change.
“It had always been like that: if you spoke out in favour of change, you were out. There was one member of the (UEFA) Executive Committee who internally said: ‘Let Čeferin go for it, he’ll get himself burned.’ So people held back. You journalists are sometimes genuinely paranoid. You think that everything is suspicious. I know all the stories.
“People were saying that I won thanks to the Russians. To which my question is: did the Russians have 42 votes? I’m proud that the Russians voted for me, but my relationship with them is no different to the other associations. My first proposal was to give Kiev the Champions League final so that clearly proves I didn’t owe them anything.”
“It’s simple: I got support from the big associations like DFB (Germany), France and Italy and the small ones, but also from regions like Scandinavia and at a certain point this wave of support was too strong to stop.”
Ceferin wouldn’t name the exco member who made the “burned” comment but added: “There are still a lot from this old world. Now some of them are coming to me and want to talk, to explain their positions. In a way I understand them and I have a lot of respect for them and for what they did in the past. They’d been friends for many years, they were always together. And then this newcomer turns up from Slovenia … and goes for the presidency without asking for permission. Nothing like that had happened before, and obviously they would have preferred their friend to win.”
Their friend was of course van Praag about whom Ceferin commented: “Lots of people would have liked to see him win. But by the end he was desperate and started making up stories about me. He had no chance.”
If Ceferin’s words may not exactly smack of diplomacy, there is no question that he is already his own man. His only regret seems to be that he is finding less time to maintain his law practise with so many challenges ahead.
“To tell you the truth, that took me rather by surprise. I was naïve and thought I could do the job part-time and come to the office two or three days a week. I wanted to continue working as a lawyer.
“It’s impossible. If you want to do it seriously, you have to be there. There are many challenges: new competitions, talks about the future of the Champions League, the relationship with the clubs, sponsors, broadcasters, structural reforms. And so I’m in the office every day from eight in the morning until eight in the evening. Or I’m travelling, which is necessary but time-consuming. There’s so much work – it’s crazy.”
But, he stressed, he was avoiding wherever possible travelling by private jet, one of the accusations levelled at his FIFA counterpart Gianni Infantino before he was cleared by Fifa’s ethics committee of any wrongdoing.
“I don’t use one regularly – only twice so far. Of course, we will certainly not fly to Paris, Munich or London by private jet. That would be stupid. There are five flights a day from Geneva. But if you have to go to Armenia, Georgia and then somewhere else within two days, then there’s no other way. It would take a week otherwise. It doesn’t make sense.”
In terms of his achievements so far, Ceferin said: “I have brought in term limits and we have created an independent body to deal with financial, legal and disciplinary misconduct. We also have a new security unit. It’s strange, but we didn’t have a women’s football unit. Now we’re introducing one.”
Under his presidency UEFA also have a new and more transparent bid process. When Michel Platini was in charge, cities were awarded club finals behind closed doors. Not any more.
“Previously it was more about political concessions. That’s no longer the case, and people are happy about it. And now nobody needs to come to me and say: ‘I voted for you, give me this or that.’ I won’t have any part in that.”
Despite describing his relationship with Infantino as “good” it is clear there are tensions between the two. On the subject of World Cup expansion, Ceferin re-iterated that Europe would accept no fewer than 16 teams, up from the current 13.
“ UEFA was the only confederation that didn’t want expansion but we had no chance. So we’ve decided to fight for as many European slots as possible. We’re calling for at least 16 slots, that would be the worst-case scenario.
“We don’t want to be arrogant, but in terms of quality, revenues, etc., Europe is number one. We’re not just a continental confederation. You can‘t simply outvote us every time. If that happens, there could be serious problems between FIFA and UEFA. But FIFA knows it and that’s why it won’t happen.”
How does he feel about Fifa technical director Marco van Basten’s blueprint for change on the field including scrapping the offside rule, introducing sinbins and replacing penalty shoot-outs with eight-second run-ups.
“ We don’t need to revolutionise the game; it’s fantastic as it is. Offside is an important part.”
Asked specfically about the shoot-out suggestion, Ceferin rebuked the very idea, ‘For me that’s a joke,’ , he said, and was similarly dismissive of sinbins. ‘Also a joke.”
“You know, I didn’t come here so that everyone says: ‘Čeferin changed this and that, he was very important.’ Why should we change the most beautiful game in the world? Hearing all these suggestions, we can only hope that FIFA leaves us the ball. Or at least that the ball remains round.”
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