Sports / Soccer |
Platini to present plans for beefed-up presidency(Reuters)Updated: 2007-03-22 08:58 BERNE, Switzerland, March 21 - Newly elected UEFA President Michel Platini has called an extraordinary meeting of his executive committee on Monday to discuss fundamental changes in the way European soccer's governing body is run. During his successful campaign to unseat former president Lennart Johansson, Platini said he wanted to be an executive president, living near UEFA's headquarters in Nyon and taking a hands-on approach to the management of the organisation. Under Johansson, many of the most senior executive decisions were made by former chief executive officer Lars-Christer Olsson who stepped down a few days after Platini's election victory. A statement released by UEFA on Wednesday said that Monday's extraordinary meeting would involve "proposed amendments to the UEFA statutes". The amendments are understood to include the removal of the CEO role from the organisation's statutes, to be replaced by a new general secretary's position occupied by former Scottish Football Association secretary David Taylor. The executive committee will also consider Platini's plans to expand the number of its members from 13 to 15 and reorganise UEFA's committees to give more power to elected members and less to the organisation's administrators. Any alterations approved on Monday will still have to be endorsed by UEFA's congress at another extraordinary meeting due to take place in Zurich on May 28. According to the UEFA statement, the executive committee will also clarify the procedure for next month's selection of the 2012 European Championship hosts. Croatia/Hungary and Poland/Ukraine are making joint bids to host the event, while Italy is bidding to stage the tournament alone. |
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