Dutch football will remain represented on the UEFA board. KNVB president Just Spee received enough votes on Tuesday at the congress of the European Football Association in Montreux, Switzerland to join the executive committee.
Spee takes over from Michael van Praag, his predecessor at the KNVB who disappears from the UEFA board after three four-year terms.
The 56-year-old Spee succeeded Van Praag at the end of 2019 as chairman of the KNVB. Van Praag remained active in the executive committee, the highest organ of UEFA.
The 73-year-old Dutchman was appointed an honorary member of UEFA on Tuesday on his farewell. “I am very grateful for this,” said Van Praag in a speech. As an honorary member, he may continue to attend the UEFA congress. He does not have the right to vote, but only an advisory role. Van Praag will also remain chairman of the stadium and safety committee of UEFA for the time being.
At the 45th Congress of the European Federation, nine candidates were for the eight available places on the board. Only the Belgian Mehdi Bayat did not make it. The president of the Belgian federation received only 14 votes from the 55 countries that are affiliated to UEFA.
Spee got 31 and was together with Alexander Dyukov (Russia), Gabriele Gravina (Italy), Zbigniew Boniek (Poland), David Gill (England), Rainer Koch (Germany), Karl-Erik Nilsson (Sweden) and Servet Yardimci (Turkey) ) for a period of four years. The last five were eligible for re-election and are starting their next term.
Congratulations to the following individuals, who are elected or re-elected to the #UEFAExCo for a four-year term.
???????? Zbigniew Boniek
???????? Alexander Dyukov
???????????????????????????? David Gill
???????? Gabriele Gravina
???????? Rainer Koch
???????? Karl-Erik Nilsson
???????? Just Spee
???????? Servet Yardımcı
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Executive committee has a lot of power
The UEFA Executive Committee is formally a controlling body, but in practice it has a lot of power. “You are sitting at the table,” said Spee. “You participate and you can exert influence. We at the KNVB like to stick our necks out. We have done this in recent years with the introduction of the VAR and with discussions about renewing the rules of the game with Marco van Basten.”
Spee, who previously worked at Philips and as director at Endemol, has campaigned extensively for the past eighteen months. “I spoke to 51 of the 54 member states, mainly via video calling because of corona,” says the Haarlemmer. “Many countries wanted to know how we organize 30,000 amateur matches every weekend.”
As a newly elected member of the UEFA board of directors, Spee can immediately get started with a difficult file. The announced creation of the Super League is causing panic and chaos in European football.
“It is a difficult file, a revolutionary idea that a very large part of European football is not waiting for,” said the chairman of the KNVB.
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