June 21 – There was a moment of silence ahead of the Spain-Italy Group B match on Thursday in honour of former UEFA general secretary and chief executive Gerhard Aigner, who has died aged 80.
Aigner, who for many years worked alongside then UEFA president Lennart Johansson, was not only instrumental in the establishment of the Champions League but was also a true football man and a genuinely warm human being.
In a statement, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said: “Football has lost one of its truly great leaders… We will miss him enormously.”
“Gerhard was instrumental in the creation of the Champions League and played a critical role in turning UEFA into the modern governing body of European football that it is today. He was a man of utmost integrity who always championed the true values of the game.”
During his long tenure with the organisation, Aigner helped navigate UEFA through a period of rapid and far-reaching change.
He had little time, said UEFA, “for those who sought only to make personal profit from the new wave of finances that was sweeping into the game, or his annoyance with those outsiders who challenged UEFA’s authority.”
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