August 22 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has been formally nominated for re-election by his home federation in Slovenia ahead of next year’s ballot.
The Slovenian FA said on its website that a group of eight other federations had sent an “official proposal” of support for Ceferin, who succeeded Michel Platini at the head of European football’s governing body in 2016 following his ban and is currently fulfilling the rest of his presidential term.
Along with Slovenia, the federations who have announced their support are the Scandinavian bloc of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Iceland plus Italy and the Republic of Ireland.
UEFA have set a November 7 deadline for potential candidates to apply provided they have the backing of at least three countries. They then have to pass an eligibility test, with the vote taking place on Feb. 7 in Rome.
The Italian soccer federation published a statement to “express gratitude for Ceferin for making UEFA even more of a leader on the world stage, also thanks to the extraordinary development of its club and international competitions.”
Ceferin was elected in September 2016 to complete the term begun one year earlier by Platini, who was banned by Fifa over the infamous “disloyal payment” he received from Sepp Blatter. Ceferin, relatively unknown at the time outside his own country, won a landslide 42-13 victory over then-UEFA vice president Michael van Praag of the Netherlands, automatically becoming one of eight FIFA vice presidents, and it would be of little surprise if he is re-elected unopposed for a second term.
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