Member federations nominate one woman in historic UEFA election
GENEVA — With the historic probability to vote for feminine candidates towards male opposition for the primary time in worldwide soccer politics, UEFA member federations elected solely one in all two girls Wednesday.
Debbie Hewitt of England was voted in because the FIFA vice chairman for the 4 British soccer nations. She beat the incumbent from Northern Ireland, David Martin, 39-16 in a vote of all of the UEFA member nations.
Hewitt’s landmark win got here lower than an hour after the identical voters re-elected UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin by acclaim and rejected the candidacy of Lise Klaveness to affix the UEFA government committee.
Klaveness acquired solely 18 votes, the second-lowest complete of 11 candidates in competition for seven seats.
“I wouldn’t call it a failure,” Ceferin mentioned when pressed on UEFA’s and his personal duties towards girls by media from Norway and Sweden at a later news convention. “You cannot tell the delegates how to vote.”
Still, it was a public setback for one in all solely a handful of feminine presidents among the many 211 nationwide soccer federations worldwide, and one who was outspoken on human rights points and World Cup host Qatar prior to now 12 months.
“I know we have done everything we could. No one has worked harder than us,” Klaveness mentioned in a press release from the Norwegian federation. “We are now moving on towards the next UEFA ExCo election in 2025.”
International and continental soccer organizations like FIFA and UEFA have had protected quota seats for girls over the previous decade following reforms enacted after widespread corruption allegations. Hewitt’s win Wednesday was the primary time a girls has crushed a person in an election at FIFA, UEFA or any of the opposite 5 continental confederations.
Ceferin later mentioned UEFA was in talks over methods to create one other place for girls.
“I am sure that Lise is doing a good job,” he mentioned, “and I’m sure she has a bright future in our organization as well.”
By selecting to problem the boys, Klaveness left the best way clear for Laura McAllister of Wales to fill the ladies’s quota seat on UEFA’s 20-member government committee unopposed.
McAllister, like Klaveness, is a former nationwide group participant who guarantees to deliver extra variety into UEFA’s ruling committee. McAllister replaces Florence Hardouin, who was suspended from the troubled French soccer federation in January.
The seven males elected to four-year phrases on the manager committee embrace Ukrainian soccer federation president Andriy Pavelko, who retained his seat with 31 votes. That was the fewest of the seven winners.
Pavelko will rejoin Russian soccer federation president Alexander Dyukov on UEFA’s decision-making physique. Dyukov is due for re-election in 2025.
The different winners Wednesday had been Armand Duka (Albania), Jesper Moller (Denmark), Petr Fousek (Czech Republic), Levan Kobiashvili (Georgia), Luis Rubiales (Spain) and Philippe Diallo (France). Diallo was appointed interim president of the French soccer federation three months in the past.
In a separate uncontested election, Hans-Joachim Watzke, the chief government of German membership Borussia Dortmund, received a two-year time period.
Executive committee members earn 160,000 euros (US$175,000) per 12 months, whereas McAllister will earn 250,000 euros (US$273,000) after later being appointed a UEFA vice chairman. Hewitt will earn US$250,000 yearly as a FIFA Council member.
RUSSIAN BAN
UEFA’s exclusion of Russian groups from worldwide competitions has no finish in sight, Ceferin mentioned.
“Until the war stops it will be very hard for us to change anything,” he mentioned.
Teams from Russia’s navy ally Belarus proceed to play, together with in a qualifying group that started final month for the 2024 European Championship.
However, UEFA did this week take away Belarus as host of the 2025 version of the Under-19 Women’s European Championship, Ceferin revealed.
Ceferin was requested later what UEFA realized from the Champions League ultimate in Paris final May, the place Liverpool and Real Madrid followers had been tear gassed and endangered by a chaotic safety operation. Ceferin handed the topic to his common secretary Theodore Theodoridis to reply.
FINANCIAL RESERVES
UEFA’s monetary reserves dropped beneath the five hundred million euro (US$545 million) degree it likes to keep up.
UEFA treasurer and vice chairman David Gill, a former Manchester United chief government, mentioned the reserves can be rebuilt over the subsequent two males’s European championships. The 2024 version is in Germany and 2028 is predicted to go to the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Gill mentioned funding to UEFA members shouldn’t be affected, with the 55 federations every promised 17 million euros (US$18.5 million) by 2024. That is double what they get from FIFA.
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