Ceferin: “I met criminals in two years in football, more than 25 in the penal code.”

Ceferin: “I met criminals in two years in football, more than 25 in the penal code.”

Aleksander Ceferin, UEFA President, gave an interview to the programme overlapled by Gary Neville.

The man who has been leading the body that governs European football since 2016 has spoken on various topics and maintained that his professional history has been very useful to him in his position.

The son, grandson and brother of lawyers, Ceferin himself has followed the profession in which he worked for more than two decades, giving him the padding to deal with the pressures he feels as UEFA president.

“I don’t get scared easily. I have said many times that I have met fewer criminals in my 25 years of criminal law than in my two years of football.”

But Ceferín maintains that they have never tried to corrupt him since he was in office.

“I know that the people who are going to watch this interview will not believe it, but the truth is that they never tried to reach me to try to influence me. Maybe they don’t trust me, they usually smell each other and know who is corrupt and who is not, ”he defends.

The 55-year-old Slovenian manager was a young man in his twenties when war broke out after the fall of the former Yugoslavia and says it also gave him the skills for everyday life in UEFA.

“Sometimes when these few people try to destabilize me, I think it’s funny. He sums it up, because I had moments that weren’t easy.”

By Melody Gross

"Writer. Communicator. Award-winning food junkie. Internet ninja. Incurable bacon fanatic."