Ukraine nice Andrii Shevchenko didn’t win election to the UEFA govt committee on Thursday, the day Russia formally ceded its seat on the decision-making physique of European soccer.
Shevchenko, the previous AC Milan star and 2004 Ballon d’Or winner, acquired simply 15 votes from the 55 nationwide federations as considered one of 5 candidates for 2 vacant seats by way of 2027 on the UEFA ruling committee.
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These two seats have been beforehand held by officers elected from Ukraine and Spain — Shevchenko’s predecessor main the nationwide federation, Andrii Pavelko, and disgraced former UEFA vice president Luis Rubiales.
Although Spain retained its seat, with Rafael Louzán getting 32 votes, Ukraine’s outdated seat went to Israel, whose federation president Moshe Zuares acquired 31 votes.
On the 2024 UEFA congress in Paris, Ukraine was amongst a handful of member federations who didn’t absolutely help a vote permitting UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin to increase his time in workplace to 2027.
Russia misplaced its seat on the 22-member UEFA ExCo as a result of its most senior soccer official, Alexander Dyukov, the chief govt of Russian oil agency Gazprom Neft, didn’t stand as a candidate to retain his place for the following 4 years.
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A key pending challenge for UEFA is when and the way to reintegrate Russia teams into worldwide competitions and finish a ban imposed inside days of the navy invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In 2022, UEFA and FIFA successfully argued on the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport that persevering with to let Russian groups play would invite chaos of their competitions when some nations in Europe refused to play opponents from the nation.
Earlier than the voting on Thursday, FIFA President Gianni Infantino instructed European soccer officers in a keynote speech he hoped Russia would quickly be again in worldwide soccer.
“As a result of this could imply that every part is solved” with peace within the conflict, Infantino mentioned.
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In a separate election for UEFA ExCo seats with four-year mandates, candidates from Estonia and Armenia received.
UEFA additionally now has a second girl on the ruling committee, electing Norwegian soccer president Lise Klaveness by acclamation to a brand new seat protected for feminine candidates.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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