Slovenian football federation leader elected as president of UEFA

Aleksander Ceferin has been elected as the next president of European football body UEFA, after previous president Michel Platini was banned for four years following a corruption scandal.

The former lawyer and head of the Slovenian football federation won a vote on Wednesday against Dutch FA president Michael van Praag by 42 votes to 13. Ceferin will take over for the remainder of Platini's term, the next two and a half years.

Many of the smaller nations involved in Uefa backed Ceferin after plans emerged for changes to the flagship Champions League competition whih would allow more established clubs from bigger countries to gain more places.

Ceferin rejected the idea that he was not a leader during his speech following the victory.

"Some people may have said I’m not a leader. You can say that I’m young and inexperienced but I honestly think it’s disrespectful to all the presidents of small and medium-sized federations who every year have to do more with less," he said.

World football has been rocked by various corruption scandals involving officials from UEFA and FIFA, and Ceferin has promised to get rid of the image of greed and secrecy garnered by the association.

"We should stop with politics, plots, lack of transparency, self interest. It’s football first."

Despite Platini's ban from all football-related activities, he was allowed to give an outgoing speech at the congress in Athens, in which he professed innocence.

"I have a clear conscience,"he said. "I am certain not to have made any mistake and I will continue to fight this in the courts. I’d like to thank all of you who have had the courage to support me in the last few months."

Ceferin becomes the seventh president of the organisation, haviing been a member of FIFA's disciplinary committee and UEFA's legal committee.