Threat of bad weather for UEFA. Director of football since 2021, former Croatian player Zvonimir Boban (photo above) has slammed the door of the European football body. He explained the reason in a long message, published Thursday January 25, where he bluntly criticizes the desire of the president, Aleksander Ceferin, to have an amendment voted on at the next congress in Paris, in order to be able to keep his seat for a mandate additional. “ I spoke to the UEFA president about an issue that arose at the last executive committee meeting in Hamburg – the proposal to amend the UEFA statutes to allow Ceferin's new candidacy after his last one ended. mandate, explains the former AC Milan midfielder, now 55 years old. After expressing my deepest concern and complete disagreement with the proposal itself, the President responded that he saw no legal or moral and ethical problem with it – and that he would undoubtedly pursue this idea which I find fatal. If I were to accept such a difficult and erroneous decision, by turning my head away, I would be going against the general principles and values in which I deeply believe.. » In response to the declaration of its now former executive, UEFA contented itself with a brief press release, where the body “ wishes to announce the departure of Zvonimir Boban from the organization by mutual agreement. Boban joined the organization in 2021 as head of football and initiated several important projects in technical development, including the establishment of the UEFA Football Committee and the Youth Football Forum. » Elected as head of UEFA in September 2016, re-elected twice, Slovenian Aleksander Ceferin should normally leave the presidency in 2027 after three consecutive mandates. But he recently suggested that he could extend it, thanks to a change in the statutes, explaining that his first mandate was not complete.
