“In principle, UEFA does not interfere in the electoral process, but we want fair elections and we do not want any interference from other parties,” said Alexander Ceferin, the president of UEFA, who paid an official visit to Tirana.
The top UEFA official came to Tirana which has become a scene of tension between the mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj and the Albanian Football Federation (AFR) run by Armand Duka in their clash to place under control football.
Ceferin said that there should be calm and transparency, not wanting to go into details of the statements.
During the visit, Ceferin had meetings with relevant officials of the football authority as well as with PM Edi Rama and made it clear, as quoted by local media, that UEFA does not interfere in the election process for the head of the federation, calling for no interference from other parties either. He said that UEFA will send representatives to monitor the elections.
“UEFA wants fair elections and we do not want any interference from other parties. I also had a meeting with Prime Minister Rama toUEFA. We were a little worried about the situation according to reports we read in the media. I am pleased that we agreed with the Prime Minister that football should decide on football,” he said.
In addition Ceferin announced UEFA will give all its support, will bring representatives to verify the correctness of the elections and of course there will be no interference from any party outside of football in Tirana.
“The most important thing here is that this situation does not help Albanian football. There should be calm, we are ready to help everything to be calm, everything should be transparent and with good governance. I do not want to enter into the statements of anyone coming from local actors,” declared Ceferin.
The President of UEFA also spoke about the final of the Europa Conference League and stated that he had reached an agreement with Prime Minister Rama and Duka to hold elections without political interference, so that the final can be held safely. / Argumentum.al
