Aleksander Čeferin

Aleksander Čeferin, a Slovenian lawyer and football administrator, was born in the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana, on 13 October 1967.

Between 2011 and 2016, he was president of the Football Association of Slovenia (NZS), and he has been President of European football’s governing body, UEFA, since 14 September 2016.

After graduating from Ljubljana University's law faculty, Aleksander Čeferin worked for his family's law firm, developing a special interest in representing professional athletes and sports clubs. He later took over from his father as company director.

Mr Čeferin took a formal interest in local football in 2005 through his work with the executive board of futsal club FC Litija. A member of the executive committee of amateur side FC Ljubljana Lawyers since 2005, he also served as an executive committee member at NK Olimpija Ljubljana from 2006 to 2011.

In 2011, Mr Čeferin was elected president of the Football Association of Slovenia. He also served as a second and third vice-chairman of the UEFA Legal Committee from 2011 to 2016.

On 14 September 2016, Aleksander Čeferin was elected as the seventh President of UEFA at the 12th Extraordinary UEFA Congress in Athens, automatically becoming a vice-president of the world football body, FIFA. “I am looking forward to working closely with all of you in order to promote, protect and develop football across our continent,” he told delegates at the Congress, “and to ensure that the European football community is always united … now and in the future."

Mr Čeferin's presidential manifesto and campaign centred on the need for UEFA to adopt good governance reforms to ensure solid foundations for the organisation, and his proposals were approved in April 2017 by UEFA’s member associations at the 41st Ordinary UEFA Congress in Helsinki. These reforms included the introduction of term limits for UEFA presidents and UEFA Executive Committee members, and the provision that Executive Committee candidates must hold an active office (president, vice-president, general secretary or CEO) with their national association.

Other statutory changes approved at the Helsinki Congress included the strengthening of the UEFA Governance and Compliance Committee with two additional independent members, and the granting of two full member positions on the UEFA Executive Committee to representatives of the European Club Association (ECA). Subsequently, the European Leagues (previously the Association of European Professional Football Leagues – EPFL) were also granted one full member position on the UEFA Executive Committee at the 42nd Ordinary UEFA Congress in Bratislava in February 2018.

Aleksander Čeferin has sought dialogue and consensus with European clubs, and has been instrumental in the development of fruitful relations between UEFA and the ECA. He has stated his opposition to any creation of a European super league, and identified one particularly important priority in the initial period of his presidency – improving competitive balance in European football and reducing the gap between elite clubs and the rest.

The UEFA President has also emphasised his commitment to strengthening UEFA’s financial fair play measures, which were introduced in 2009 in an effort to bring greater stability to European club football, especially in terms of clubs’ financial management. Amendments to the regulations for the 2018–21 competition cycle ensure continued progress at a time of encouraging results that reflect several years of improvement. UEFA’s most recent club licensing benchmarking report, issued in January 2019 and featuring an overview of 700 top-division clubs in Europe, shows that for the first time since financial fair play was introduced in 2009, the clubs concerned together generated a ‘bottom-line’ profit figure of €615m in the 2017 financial year.

As part of his objective to consolidate communication and collaboration with key football stakeholders, Mr Čeferin has also worked to strengthen ties with members of the European Parliament, as well as with the Council of Europe and European Commission, with UEFA signing a series of cooperation and development agreements to underline its commitment in this area.

Investment in grassroots and women’s football has also been at the core of Mr Čeferin’s mandate. The highest-ever funding for football development was announced at the 2018 Ordinary UEFA Congress in Bratislava, and UEFA also committed to increasing the funding for women’s football development projects by 50% that same year. The UEFA President oversaw the signing of UEFA’s first-ever sponsorship deal dedicated entirely to women’s football – with Visa – in December 2018.

Aleksander Čeferin was re-elected by acclamation for a new four-year term by UEFA’s 55 member associations at the 43rd Ordinary UEFA Congress in Rome on 7 February 2019. During his acceptance speech, the UEFA President underlined his determination to ensure that “European football remains united, that European football remains respectful, respectable and respected, and that European football continues to demonstrate solidarity and bring hope.”

In addition to governance reforms, Mr Čeferin’s presidency has been marked by his commitment to the continual forward momentum of UEFA and European football. UEFA’s overall strategy for 2019–24, unveiled in spring 2019, is designed to ensure that UEFA remains true to its core values as the governing body of European football. The strategy is based on four main pillars: football; trust; competitiveness and prosperity – and focuses on increasing participation, improving good governance at all levels, allowing teams more opportunities to play competitive matches and enhancing engagement for football fans around the world. It calls for all football stakeholders to work together in a spirit of cooperation and togetherness – with the overall well-being of the European game always in mind.

Aleksander Čeferin is a keen advocate of social and humanitarian policies that underline football’s power as a force for social good. In November 2017, he was elected chairman of the UEFA Foundation for Children – a body supporting humanitarian projects worldwide that promote and foster children’s rights. Under Mr Čeferin’s presidency, UEFA has entered a new era as a ‘social fair play’ body through initiatives such as the #EqualGame campaign promoting diversity, inclusion and accessibility in football.

Also in November 2017, Mr Čeferin joined the football-led charity movement Common Goal, pledging to give 1% of his salary to the organisation’s projects.

Aleksander Čeferin was voted sports personality of the year in 2016 by Slovenian sports newspaper Ekipa SN, in a poll of newspaper journalists and readers. In January 2019, SportsPro Media included Mr Ceferin in the list of the most influential people in the sports industry. The UEFA President was also selected as one of the people of 2018 by the influential World Soccer magazine.