After a vote at the governing body’s Congress in Athens, the Slovenian was named as the new leader, replacing Michel Platini
Aleksander Ceferin has been confirmed as the new president of UEFA after beating fellow candidate Michael van Praag in Wednesday’s election.
The head of the Slovenian Football Association was the overwhelming favourite to replace disgraced former president Michel Platini during the vote at UEFA’s Congress in Athens.
FIFA appeals committee on Wednesday upheld the bans handed out to outgoing president of the soccer governing body, Sepp Blatter and s UEFA boss Michel Platini.
But the suspensions have been reduced from eight to six years, the BBC reports.
Both were found guilty of breaches surrounding a £1.3m ($2m) “disloyal payment” to Platini. They denied any wrongdoing and have said they will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Blatter, 79, added in a statement that he was “very disappointed by the appeal committee of FIFA.” Platini, 60, said it was “insulting and shameful” and a “political decision.”
The committee said “activities and services rendered to FIFA, UEFA and football” was a mitigating factor.
FIFA’s presidential election is due to take place on Friday to find Blatter’s replacement.
Blatter and Platini said the payment honoured a verbal or gentleman’s agreement made in 1998 for work carried out by the Frenchman when he was a technical advisor for Blatter.
Credit: BBC
The vote will be held in Zurich on Feb. 26.
The European football federation (UEFA) said it was “disappointed” in FIFA’s decision on Monday to ban Michel Platini for eight years over an ethics violation, expressing support for the Frenchman’s right to an appeal.
“Naturally, UEFA is extremely disappointed with this decision, which nevertheless is subject to appeal,” the governing body said of the ruling against Platini, who is UEFA’s president.
“UEFA supports Michel Platini’s right to a due process and the opportunity to clear his name,” the statement added.
FIFA’s ethics court suspended Platini, 60, over a 2 million Swiss franc ($2 million/1.8 million euros) payment he received from Blatter in 2011, reportedly for consulting work done a decade earlier.
Blatter was also banned for eight years.
Both Blatter and Platini denied there was anything suspicious about the payment and that it had previously been agreed in an oral contract.
FIFA judges said they “rejected” evidence concerning such an oral contract as it was unconvincing.
Shortly after the verdict, Blatter told journalists that he will appeal against the ban, first to a FIFA committee and then to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.
Platini has not commented on a possible appeal.
The Frenchman, once the heir apparent to replace Blatter as FIFA’s president, boycotted his hearing with FIFA judges on December 18, claiming their verdict was pre-determined.
He was, however, represented by his lawyers at FIFA’s Zurich headquarters, who said they had produced sufficient evidence to clear their client’s name.
Credit : Vanguard
Michel Platini has insisted he remains the best candidate to run world football despite his ongoing suspension from the game.
UEFA president Platini has been given a provisional 90-day suspension while a £1.3 million payment he received from FIFA is investigated.
That has thrown into doubt his eligibility to stand in February’s election to replace current FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who has also been suspended by the governing body’s ethics committee.
Platini is one of seven candidates in the race but will only be on the ballot in February if his ban is lifted.
However, Platini insisted he would not be thrown off course.
“I am, in all humility, the most able to run world football,” he said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.
“This suspension prevents me from campaigning and fighting on an equal footing. It clouds what is really at stake in this election for the future of world football.
“Even if I cannot go out campaigning, I fully consider myself a candidate. Today, I have the sense of being a knight from the Middle Ages, in front of a castle. I am trying to get in to bring football back, but instead I’m having boiling oil poured on my head.”
Platini was suspended earlier this month when it emerged that he had been paid £1.3m by FIFA in 2011 for work completed nine years earlier.
However, Platini insisted everything about the payment — which was made three months before a FIFA presidential election in which Platini opted not to challenge Blatter — was above board and properly handled.
“The two million [Swiss francs] represents the equivalent of four years’ salary arrears that FIFA owed me when I was the president’s special adviser. The president himself offered me a contract and a salary that I accepted,” he said.
“So to be clear: Was there work provided? Yes. Is an oral contract legal in Switzerland? Yes. Did I have the right to reclaim my money even nine years later? Yes. Did I produce a proper invoice as FIFA required? Yes. Was the money declared to the taxman? Yes.”
Asked directly about claims that the payment was effectively a bribe to keep him from standing in 2011, Platini said: “These other allegations are not based on anything.”
He also played down the idea that Blatter’s decision to pay him so soon before the election was effectively a trap.
“I don’t want to believe in conspiracy theories,” he said. “Yes, I have waited a long time to reclaim what I was owed. But the only mistake is that I let several years go by.
“I had faith in the word of the FIFA president and I knew he would pay me one day. I was lucky enough not to need the money, but just because I don’t need the money doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be paid for my work.”
Blatter had also given his account of events in the interview he conducted with the TASS news agency this week.
Asked about the contract with Platini, Blatter had said: “When he was chairman of the organising committee for the France World Cup, he told me at the end of the cup, ‘I would like to work for you.’ And I said this is great because we all already worked with him. It was in 1998.
“And then he said that ‘I am very expensive.’ I said OK. So he said, ‘I am worth one million a year.’ I said, ‘I cannot pay this, it’s impossible.’ And he said, ‘OK, then pay me later.’ So we have made some contract, where he got some money, but not one million.
“He was working until he was elected in 2002 to FIFA Executive Committee and UEFA Executive Committee. He stopped his working contract because he was then an official of FIFA. He never touched this item until 2010.
“In 2010 he approached the financial director of FIFA by saying, ‘Hey, listen, FIFA owes us money.’ I was informed about that and I said, ‘OK, let him make an invoice of this, what we owe him.’ And then he said we owe him two million Swiss francs. And then I analysed that and I said OK.
“Yes, it’s a contract we have made. And it’s a principle I have in my life that if you owe money to somebody, then you pay it. Then we paid it. That’s all. And this money was not paid for any other reasons.”
Eight contenders are set to contest for the position of FIFA president by replacing Sepp Blatter, come February, 2016 as the FIFA presidency election takes place. However, our very own 63-year old Segun Odegbami couldn’t make it. Mr Segun has blamed the Nigeria Football Federation for his failure saying their help rather came too late to make him qualify.
Those that made it are; Michel Platini, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, David Nakhid, Gianni Infantino, Tokyo Sexwale, Jerome Champagne, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa and Musa Bility.
So one of these people will be FIFA’s next president come 2016.
The body had supported the ex-France international’s bid to take over the world governing body, but will now wait on the results of a probe into the Uefa president’s conduct
The English Football Association (FA) has announced it will no longer support Michel Platini’s candidacy to succeed Sepp Blatter as Fifa president.
The former France international had been tipped as one of the front-runners to succeed Blatter, who was forced to call elections in the world body following the corruption scandal which broke in May.
Following revelations that the Uefa president faces his own charges, however, and a subsequent provisional suspension, the FA has withdrawn its backing.
“The FA supports the statement issued by UEFA on Thursday 15 October concerning the ethics case against Michel Platini,” the association said.
“This statement expressed respect for the significant work performed by Mr Platini at UEFA, requested that he be afforded due process in contesting the charges, and encouraged the relevant bodies involved to reach a final decision on the merits of the case by mid-November.
“The FA wishes Mr Platini every success in fighting these charges and clearing his name, and has no interest in taking any action that jeopardises this process.
“However, notwithstanding the above, at the UEFA meeting on Thursday, The FA learnt more information relating to the issues at the centre of this case from Mr Platini’s lawyers.
“We have been instructed that the information must be kept confidential and therefore we cannot go into specifics.
“As a result of learning this information, The FA Board has on Friday morning concluded that it must suspend its support for Mr Platini’s candidature for the FIFA Presidency until the legal process has been concluded and the position is clear.”
