Voters give women 1 win, 1 loss in UEFA soccer election

GENEVA (AP) — With the historic chance to vote for female candidates against male opposition for the first time in international soccer politics, UEFA member federations elected only one of two women Wednesday.

Debbie Hewitt of England was voted in as the FIFA vice president for the four British soccer nations. She beat the incumbent from Northern Ireland, David Martin, 39-16 in a vote of all the UEFA member countries.

Hewitt’s landmark win came less than an hour after the same voters re-elected UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin by acclaim and rejected the candidacy of Lise Klaveness to join the UEFA executive committee.

Klaveness received only 18 votes, the second-lowest total of 11 candidates in contention for seven seats.

“I wouldn’t call it a failure,” Ceferin said when pressed on UEFA's and his own responsibilities toward women by media from Norway and Sweden at a later news conference. “You cannot tell the delegates how to vote.”

Still, it was a public setback for one of only a handful of female presidents among the 211 national soccer federations worldwide, and one who was outspoken on human rights issues and World Cup host Qatar in the past year.

“I know we have done everything we could. No one has worked harder than us,” Klaveness said in a statement from the Norwegian federation. “We are now moving on towards the next UEFA ExCo election in 2025.”

International and continental soccer organizations like FIFA and UEFA have had protected quota seats for women over the past decade following reforms enacted after widespread corruption allegations. Hewitt’s win Wednesday was the first time a women has beaten a man in an election at FIFA, UEFA or any of the other five continental confederations.

Ceferin later said UEFA was in talks over how to create another position for women.

“I am sure that Lise is doing a good job,” he said, “and I’m sure she has a bright future in our organization as well.”

By choosing to challenge the men, Klaveness left the way clear for Laura McAllister of Wales to fill the women’s quota seat on UEFA’s 20-member executive committee unopposed.

McAllister, like Klaveness, is a former national team player who promises to bring more diversity into UEFA's ruling committee. McAllister replaces Florence Hardouin, who was suspended from the troubled French soccer federation in January.

The seven men elected to four-year terms on the executive committee include Ukrainian soccer federation president Andriy Pavelko, who retained his seat with 31 votes. That was the fewest of the seven winners.

Pavelko will rejoin Russian soccer federation president Alexander Dyukov on UEFA’s decision-making body. Dyukov is due for re-election in 2025.

The other winners Wednesday were Armand Duka (Albania), Jesper Moller (Denmark), Petr Fousek (Czech Republic), Levan Kobiashvili (Georgia), Luis Rubiales (Spain) and Philippe Diallo (France). Diallo was appointed interim president of the French soccer federation three months ago.

In a separate uncontested election, Hans-Joachim Watzke, the chief executive of German club Borussia Dortmund, got a two-year term.

Executive committee members earn 160,000 euros ($175,000) per year, while McAllister will earn 250,000 euros ($273,000) after later being appointed a UEFA vice president. Hewitt will earn $250,000 annually as a FIFA Council member.

RUSSIAN BAN

UEFA's exclusion of Russian teams from international competitions has no end in sight, Ceferin said.

“Until the war stops it will be very hard for us to change anything," he said.

Teams from Russia's military ally Belarus continue to play, including in a qualifying group that began last month for the 2024 European Championship.

However, UEFA did this week remove Belarus as host of the 2025 edition of the Under-19 Women’s European Championship, Ceferin revealed.

Ceferin was asked later what UEFA learned from the Champions League final in Paris last May, where Liverpool and Real Madrid fans were tear gassed and endangered by a chaotic security operation. Ceferin passed the subject to his general secretary Theodore Theodoridis to answer.

FINANCIAL RESERVES

UEFA's financial reserves dropped below the 500 million euro ($545 million) level it likes to maintain.

UEFA treasurer and vice president David Gill, a former Manchester United chief executive, said the reserves would be rebuilt over the next two men's European championships. The 2024 edition is in Germany and 2028 is expected to go to the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Gill said funding to UEFA members should not be affected, with the 55 federations each promised 17 million euros ($18.5 million) through 2024. That is double what they get from FIFA.

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