Van Praag talks of backtracking voters as Ceferin set for victory
By Brian Homewood
ATHENS (Reuters) - Dutchman Michael van Praag complained of backtracking voters on Tuesday as his rival Aleksander Ceferin appeared to be heading for victory in Wednesday's UEFA presidential election.
The Slovenian has had more than 30 public declarations of support among the 55 national FAs who will vote in the election, including major ones such as Germany, France and Italy.
Dutchman Van Praag has only received four public declarations of backing in his bid to head the European soccer's governing body and said he might have been victim of the old way of doing business, although he was refusing to throw in the towel.
The winner will replace disgraced Frenchman Michel Platini, who headed UEFA for eight years until he was banned from the sport for four years last year by FIFA's ethics committee for unethical conduct.
Despite his ban Platini has been granted permission to address Wednesday's Congress - to be held at a luxury resort situated on a private peninsula near Athens - in what the ethics committee described as a "gesture of humanity".
Both candidates have promised to help the smaller countries and leagues in the face of a growing divide between a handful of big clubs and the rest.
They agreed that the process which led to last month's reformulation of the Champions League in favour of clubs from big countries was flawed and said they would fight any attempt to set up a breakaway Super League.
"At the end of the day, I'm of the opinion that they will not break away," Van Praag told reporters.
"First of all, we will do everything (to ensure) that (a) Super League never happens," said Ceferin.
Van Praag said he would hold fresh talks over the Champions League if elected, saying key stakeholders had been left out in the cold.
"I tell you that if I am elected I will reopen negotiations but with the leagues and associations around the table as well."
The former Ajax president said he still believed in his chances.
"I don't think public endorsements are really important so it's no use to talk about that," he said.
"It's more important that I know who is going to support me and there are countries who didn't want to disclose it and I respect that."
However, he did not understand why the Germany football federation had chosen Ceferin after initially indicating they would vote for him.
"I'm disappointed because the Netherlands and Germany always get along very well, we are good neighbours and I felt very confident but now unfortunately they have decided for some reasons I don't understand," he said.
"Some people told to me from the beginning they would vote for me, and then all of a sudden they turned their back on me.... if you call that old school, I can only believe that is what happened."
Van Praag, who has said that UEFA must cut costs, said it was not his decision to hold the event in such extravagant surroundings.
"I'm not the president so I have no influence on that," he said. "My room is also nice but I don't need such a big one."
(Writing by Brian Homewood)