© EuroFootball.com
Former legendary French footballer Michel Platini was elected as the new President of the UEFA (Union of European Football Associations). During the 31st regular congress of the organization held in the German city of Dusseldorf, Platini defeated the 17-year leader of European football, Swedish Lennart Johansson, by four votes after a fierce battle.
51-year-old M. Platini received 27 votes, while the long-time association President, 77-year-old L. Johansson, got 23 votes, and two ballots were invalidated. After the last four ballots were counted, both candidates were tied at 23 votes each, and the winner was only determined at the end.
Platini, the seventh UEFA President and the first born after 1954 when the organization was founded, immediately suggested that Johansson be appointed as an honorary President and celebrated his victory with applause.
"I am excited, incredibly excited, but I am happy. When I was a player, after winning a great victory, you received trophies and ran a lap of honor with all your friends. Today, this is a great victory for me, but I will not run a lap of honor because I need to start working. This is the beginning of a beautiful adventure," said the Frenchman.
Like many elections, these were also not without a preliminary war of words. On Wednesday, Johansson's representatives declared they had enough votes to win, leading to negative criticism from the opponent's camp. On Thursday, FIFA President Sepp Blatter, in his introductory speech at the congress, expressed support for Platini.
After the elections, Blatter stated that he is looking forward to collaborating much closer with Platini than he did with Johansson: "The result did not surprise me. I am pleased to be able to work with a person who has a similar football vision to mine and thinks not only about making money, but also about social significance."
One of Platini's proposals was to change the regulations of the UEFA Champions League and not allow countries to have more than three representatives, as currently the three strongest nations can delegate four teams to the tournament. Johansson opposed this proposal, claiming that the current system provides financial stability.
Starting his player career at "Nancy" and "Saint-Etienne" teams, Platini shined in Italy representing Turin's "Juventus", with whom he won the European Champions Cup, Cup Winners' Cup, and UEFA Super Cup over five seasons, as well as numerous national titles. Additionally, he was named the best European footballer in 1983, 1984, and 1985.
As a member of the French national team, Platini won the European Championship in 1984 and also participated in three World Cups. After retiring as a player, he was the national team's head coach from 1988 to 1992, but later chose administrative work and has been involved in the activities of the FIFA and UEFA Executive Committees and the French Football Federation in recent years.
The Frenchman has visited Lithuania twice. In 2002, he attended the opening of an artificial pitch in Kaunas, and last October, he came to Vilnius to present his program and meet with the Presidents of the Football Federations of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Belarus.
