PARIS.- Already shaken by the decision of the European justice system in favor of the Super League, the UEFA meets at its congress on Thursday in Pariswhere its president Aleksander Ceferin must submit for approval a controversial draft reform of statutes that could allow him to remain in office until 2031.
The conclave of UEFA’s supreme control body could have staged the unity of the great family of European football after the setback suffered at the hands of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which considered that UEFA had abused its ” dominant position” to try to stifle any secession initiative and the creation of a dissident Champions League competition.
But on the contrary, it will be in a climate of crisis that the 55 member federations will meet at the conference center in the French capital, Maison de La Mutualité.
The resignation of Zvonimir Boban from his position as football director, on January 25, uncovered a fissure within the organization caused by Ceferin’s maneuvers.
Michel Platini’s successor, elected in September 2016 after the Frenchman’s resignation and re-elected in 2023 for what would have been his third and final four-year term, will put to the vote an amendment that offers him the possibility of running again in 2027 .
Technically, the text does not abolish the three-term limit, one of the key measures taken in April 2017 by Ceferin, after the cascade of corruption scandals that led to similar restrictions at FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
But it specifies that this rule, valid for all members of the executive committee, does not take into account mandates “started before July 1, 2017”, which is the case of the Slovenian’s first mandate. The only justification provided is the “legal principle of non-retroactivity.”
The leader of the European confederation does not plan to stop there, since the same series of proposals includes the repeal of the age limit of 70 years to be elected or re-elected to the Executive Committee.
Something that breaks with another of his flagship commitments from 2017 and that follows in the footsteps of FIFA, in which Gianni Infantino had a similar provision approved, discarding the 2016-2019 period from the calculation of three mandates, when he was elected head of football. world after the resignation of Sepp Blatter.
Calm within UEFA:
From UEFA, there is no concern about the result of the vote, although the reform must have two-thirds of the votes for it to be adopted.
But the congress could offer a platform to some discordant voices, far from the unanimous support desired by the president, something that will weaken Ceferin’s position, at least in the eyes of his “best enemy” Infantino and just before two important events: the Euro Cup 2024 in Germany (June 14-July 14) and the launch of next season’s new Champions League format, conceived as a shield against a possible Super League.
Source: AFP
