Lise Klaveness fails in UEFA Executive Committee bid

On Wednesday, Lise Klaveness failed to make history by winning a seat on the UEFA Executive Committee that is not specifically reserved for a woman.

Facing 10 male candidates for the seven seats up for grabs at the UEFA Congress in Lisbon, the president of the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) received just 18 of the 55 possible votes – to finish in 10th place (out of 11). This means that there is still only one woman among the 20 members of the UEFA Executive Committee. 

The 41-year-old Norwegian could have stood for the seat reserved for a woman – which was won by Laura McAllister of Wales – but had made a conscious decision against this course of action.

"I don't like the system where you have the very few female representatives running against each other before the normal election," Klaveness said in a recent interview with Forbes magazine.  

Advocating change 

What may have hurt Klaveness' chances of winning a seat against her male opponents is that she sees herself as an agent of change, something she noted in a tweet posted prior to the vote. 

Klaveness, a former midfielder and forward who earned 73 caps for Norway, had also caused a stir at the 2022 FIFA Congress in Qatar, with a memorable speech on human rights.  

UEFA President Ceferin reelected 

Slovenian lawyer Alexander Ceferin was reelected as UEFA president by acclamation, as there were no other candidates for the post. After the delegates approved the acclamation process, Ceferin was "elected" by a round of applause – in a similar manner to how FIFA boss Gianni Infantino was recently reconfirmed in his position.

 "I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your unanimous support. It really means a lot to me," Ceferin told delegates after winning reelection until 2027.

The 55-year-old was first elected in 2016 following the downfall of Frenchman Michel Platini and has since successfully opposed proposals by Infantino to hold the World Cup every two years as well as facing the breakaway Super League project. 

Speaking about the latter, Ceferin said on Wednesday: "In the space of a few months the so-called Super League has turned into a character in Little Red Riding Hood, a wolf disguised as a grandmother ready to eat you up.

Earlier this year, Ceferin came under heavy criticism for UEFA's errors around the2022 Champions League final in Paris.

Germany's Watzke and Neuendorf win election  

Hans-Joachim Watzke, chairman of the German Football League's (DFL) supervisory board, was elected to the Executive Committee and German FA (DFB) President Bernd Neuendorf to represent UEFA in the FIFA Council, with both completing terms of their German predecessors who stepped down.