Germany’s football association has said that it will support Alexander Ceferin in the upcoming UEFA presidential election. He is one of three candidates vying to replace Michel Platini.
The German FA (DFB) announced in a statement released after a meeting of their presidential board on Friday that they would vote for Aleksander Ceferin of Slovenia in the election for a new UEFA president in Athens on September 14.
It said the board had reached a consensus on supporting Ceferin, based on an examination of his platform of him and those of the two other candidates, Michael van Praag of the Netherlands and Spain’s Angel Villar Llona.
Members of the board, it said, were particularly convinced by Ceferin’s pledges to ensure good governance and transparency in the workings of football’s European governing body, as well as to improve communication between UEFA and the national associations, leagues and clubs.
The DFB’s decision comes a day after France’s football federation made a similar statement in favor of Ceferin’s candidacy. That means that the 48-year-old now seems to have the support of more than 20 of UEFA’s 55 national associations.
UEFA has been without a president since May 9, when former France and Juventus star Michel Platini stepped down following a decision by the Lausanne-based Court of Administration for Sport (CAS). In the ruling, the court reduced by two years Platini’s six-year ban from football, which had been imposed by FIFA. It did so over a disloyal payment of two million Swiss francs(1.8 million euros, $2 million) which he had received from banned former FIFA President Sepp Blatter in 2011.
The winner of the September 14 vote is to complete Platini’s third four-year term, which expires in March 2019.
