Slovenian Ceferin takes over from Platini as new UEFA president
Aleksander Ceferin has been named as the new president of UEFA, comfortably beating Dutchman Michael Van Praag in Wednesday's election at a congress in Athens.
The 48-year-old lawyer, who is the president of the Football Association of Slovenia, won by 42 votes to 13 and will take over from Michel Platini for the next two years as the head of European football's governing body.
Ceferin becomes the seventh president of UEFA and his objective is to make the organisation more transparent, promising "good governance and transparency.”
He said: "It is a great honour, but also a great responsibility. It means a lot to me. My small and beautiful Slovenia is very proud of it, and I hope that one day you will also be proud of me.
“Some people may have said I’m not a leader. You can say that I’m young and inexperienced but I honestly think it’s disrespectful to all the presidents of small and medium-sized federations who every year have to do more with less."
Platini left the role in May two years into a four year term, which is why Ceferin's only been appointed as president for two more years, as opposed to the normal four.
