By Andrew Warshaw
May 18 – Michel Platini’s successor as UEFA president will be elected on September 14, with veteran Dutch FA chief Michael van Praag already in the frame.
As expected, UEFA agreed today on a mid-September extraordinary congress to choose a new leader until March 2019, the time when Platini’s term was due to come to an end.
The Congress will also serve to elect UEFA’s female representative on the new FIFA Council. The deadline for submission of candidates for both elections is July 20.
UEFA has been without a president since Platini was first suspended by the FIFA ethics committee last October, meaning it will be almost a year before his successor is in place.
Last week, Platini confirmed he will stand down after his six-year ban from football in any official capacity was reduced to four by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). He was initially banned for eight years by FIFA’s ethics body over a SFr 2 million payment given to him by FIFA in 2011 for consultancy work carried out a decade earlier on behalf of Sepp Blatter.
At a news conference on the morning of the Europa League final in Basel following an emergency meeting of UEFA’s executive committee, interim secretary general Theodore Theodoridis disclosed that September was one of three possible election options presented to the exco – and the latest date on the table. It was chosen, he said, to give prospective candidates sufficient time to campaign.
“The earliest we could have gone through an electoral process would still have been after the Euros on July 21,” said Theodoridis, who further explained that would have been too soon to meet FIFA eligibility rules since the new UEFA leader also becomes a FIFA vice-president and has to go through the relevant integrity check.
Van Praag, who at one stage was a candidate for FIFA president before dropping out of the race, immediately “expressed his intention” to enter the contest though, at 68, he would probably only serve until the end of the current term. Other contenders could include veteran Spaniard Angel Villar Llona, former Croatian international Davor Suker, now head of his federation, and Slovenian FA chief Aleksander Ceferin.
With Platini’s successor not elected until two months after the Euros in his native France, Theodoridis confirmed that the trophy will be handed over to the winners on July 10 by Villar Llona, UEFA’s next in line as senior vice-president but hardly the most esteemed choice given he has been sanctioned himself for failing to co-operate with the inquiry into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process.
Theororidis was grilled over whether Platini, still held in high esteem by UEFA officials despite his ban, would be allowed to attend games at the Euros. He has already been invited as a guest by the organising committee.
He admitted UEFA were still unclear what Platini, who seems bound to show up in some capacity at a tournament that is so dear to his heart, could or couldn’t do.
“It’s not for UEFA to judge the decisions of courts,” Theororidis said. “But we have sent a letter to FIFA asking to tell us what the sanction actually entails and what Michel Platini’s rights are. The answers we have received are not that clear. We have been told he can buy a ticket for any stand but not be invited by the organisers. We don’t want to violate any FIFA rules and are seeking further clarification. We are trying to understand the exact definition of this sanction.”
“The question is clarifying what constitutes official capacity in practise,” added UEFA’s legal director Alasdair Bell. “It’s a slightly grey zone.”
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