POLITICO Q&A: UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin

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POLITICO: We’re right here in Monaco for the Champions League draw. On the finish of this Champions League season, the ultimate’s going to be held in Budapest. Do you will have any misgivings about the truth that it’s in Budapest given Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s ongoing relationship with Russia, and tensions he’s had with Ukraine?

Čeferin: For me, if we'd have any issues with that, we'd turn out to be a political group. Hungary is our member. I respect Hungarians. I respect the Hungarian authorities precisely the identical because the German authorities or some other authorities in Europe. And when you assume that we are going to award competitions solely to those who're according to mainstream politics, you then’re mistaken. I imply, I don’t assume that those who're the loudest critics are precisely the champions in human rights as properly. So I don’t have any drawback with Hungary. And by the way in which, the Hungarian authorities made extra funding into sports activities infrastructure of all of the governments that talk loads however don’t do a lot for soccer.

POLITICO: Have you ever had any discussions about expelling Israeli golf equipment out of your competitions over the conflict in Gaza?

<img decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/02/GettyImages-1239805321-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-7091346" srcset="https://www.politico.eu/cdn-cgi/image/width=1024,quality=80,onerror=redirect,format=auto/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/02/GettyImages-1239805321.jpg 1024w, https://www.politico.eu/cdn-cgi/image/width=300,quality=80,onerror=redirect,format=auto/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/02/GettyImages-1239805321.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px"/> UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin attends a press convention following an UEFA government assembly on April 7, 2022 in Nyon. | Fabrice Coffrini/AFP by way of Getty Pictures

Čeferin: Look, initially, what’s occurring with civilians there's personally hurting, killing me. It’s not possible to see these items anymore. From the opposite standpoint, I’m not a supporter of banning the athletes. As a result of what can an athlete do to their authorities to cease the conflict? It’s very, very arduous. Now, the ban for Russian groups is, I believe, three and a half years. Did the conflict cease? It didn’t. So for now, I don’t know. I've to say that with the state of affairs in Russia and Ukraine, there was a brilliant sturdy political strain. Now it’s extra a strain of the civil society than politicians, as a result of politicians are clearly, in terms of wars and victims, very pragmatic. I can't say what's going to occur. There are talks about all the things, however me personally, I’m towards kicking the athletes out.

For instance, the previous participant of Yugoslavia, [Dejan] Savićević, who's now president of the Soccer Federation of Montenegro, he mentioned that in ‘92 when Yugoslavia was banned from taking part in the European Championship, they [the players] had been all towards [Slobodan] Milošević. They had been all towards the system. The system was non-democratic and so forth. However they had been kicked out. And due to the political sanctions, the outcome was the hatred towards the West that also stays. In Serbia, for instance, when you go to a referendum about NATO, 80 % shall be towards. So, for me, sport ought to attempt to present the way in which however not by forbidding the athletes to compete. However to be sincere, once more, with the conflict, Russia-Ukraine, we had an virtually hysterical political response. We had been among the many first to behave, really believing that sport might assist put an finish to this tragedy. Sadly, life confirmed us in any other case. Now I don’t see a lot response from politics. From civil society it’s big.

And I can't perceive how a politician who can do loads to cease the slaughter, anyplace, can fall asleep seeing all the kids and all of the civilians lifeless. I don’t perceive it. You already know, the concept soccer ought to clear up these issues? No means.