12 September 2016
With the election for UEFA President taking place on Wednesday, September 14th, Women in Football contacted all candidates to ask their views on the role of women in the game, and how they plan to bring about reform in this area.
All candidates were sent questions and given over two weeks to respond.
Two of the candidates provided a response, and one of them subsequently withdrew his candidacy. Please see the response below from the remaining candidate Aleksander Ceferin. The other candidate Michael Van Praag did not respond.
Aleksander Ceferin
First of all I would like to thank you for your questions.
As you may have read in my manifesto there are couple of very important things that I think should be changed and should - as a part of good governance - bring UEFA at the next level.
Dialogue, inclusion and gender equality are just tree out of eleven ‘players’ that I intend to bring ‘on pitch’ to help us to grow the game and to bring football community together.
I am the father to three wonderful daughters. Also in my professional life as Chair of the Board of my law firm, I have witnessed first-hand how the culture of an organisation can change for the better when women take important positions. I am a firm supporter of gender equality, and creating a women’s football division could be first step towards increasing the participation of women in football – not only as registered players but also as leaders, managers, coaches and other positions.
UEFA must push to increase diversity and gender equality in football and establish partnerships with governments throughout Europe to encourage girls to believe that anything is within their reach, with football being part of that goal. It is our duty as a role model organisation to set this example and organization that you are working for is perfect example wow women can take initiative in favour of our sport.
To be the organisation that helps build a new legacy programme promoting gender equality in the country hosting the Women’s European Championship would be something we could all be proud of. Making the UEFA Women’s Champions League Final a major event in its own right, and not simply a warm-up for the Champions League final would be the first sign that things are changing.
I would of course like to see our sport continue to grow and to help make this a reality. However, in order to do so, we need to ensure that an appropriate environment is in place. More women in our sport means that environment is changing in the right direction. Throughout the years, football has continued to grow in popularity all over the world. We need to make sure that all children, boy and girls, can take part. We need to understand these challenges and build a short, mid and long-term strategy, in close cooperation with all member associations and other stakeholders in order to ensure that football remains the most popular sport in Europe for generations to come and that women get part that they should.
The implementation of a global, tailored grassroots programme to increase participation of girls is currently a dream. However, we must continue to strive for this because this is how we can best promote and protect our game and promote gender equality.
As I have written in my manifesto the best way for UEFA to continue to develop is by us working together – making best use of all of our strengths, respecting the role of every member association and taking the views of other stakeholders into account.
And I am convinced that through football we can together create better world.
Yours sincerely,
Aleksander ?eferin
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