By Andrew Warshaw
March 4 – UEFA could elect a new president just before the start of the European Championship finals in June if Michel Platini fails to clear his name.
UEFA today re-affirmed that it would not undergo an election process until Platini had been given the chance to exhaust all avenues in his bid to overturn his six-year ban from football.
The Frenchman, first suspended back in October, has taken his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport but UEFA is hoping for a quick resolution in order to avoid a lengthy leadership vacuum that could otherwise run until September.
UEFA’s legal director Alasdair Bell said that if CAS rules before the end of April and Platini remains banned, the requisite three-month election campaign “can be shortened” under a recent change of rules.
“In theory we could ask for nominations to be presented within a week of any CAS ruling,” said Bell, “and then give prospective candidates at least a month to campaign. I don’t know whether that would happen but it might be possible.”
Theodore Theodoridis, as expected appointed UEFA interim general secretary now that Gianni Infantino has stepped into the FIFA hotseat, added: “Whenever there is a decision we can immediately hold an executive committee meeting and go to an accelerated process for the election.”
Theodoridis had been Infantino’s deputy since October 2010 and will effectively be responsible for running the day-to-day operations of UEFA, a task that includes overseeing the expanded Euro finals in June and July.
UEFA has not appointed an acting replacement for Platini and earlier this week the head of the German FA urged Platini to step down to allow a successor to be named sooner rather than later.
But Theodoridis denied Platini’s absence had created a destabilising power vacuum. “UEFA has a very strong executive committee and also an administration that throughout the last four months has been run by its competent staff, by its directors and faced no particular issues,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kosovo’s long wait to become a full-time member of UEFA may soon be over – though Big Brother Serbia is likely to put up fierce resistance.
UEFA’s executive committee decided today to put the breakaway state’s application to become its 55th member to the vote at its full congress in early May.
Recognised by the United Nations, Kosovan authorities have been chipping away for the best part of two years to try and become a fully-fledged footballing nation. Although they have been playing friendly matches, competitive senior tournament fixtures have so far been denied them. But that may be about to change.
If approved by the majority of European nations at the UEFA Congress in Budapest, Kosovo could even be fast-tracked into the 2018 World Cup qualifying programme.
“There is a FIFA executive committee meeting on March 18 and our request will be that if Kosovo is approved as a 55th UEFA member for FIFA to submit that to their own Congress in Mexico on May 12,” said Theodoridis. “If that is approved too, yes they could play in the qualifiers. But there are two ifs.”
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