UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin lifted the curtain on the hottest topics in European football during his visit to the Football Federation in Skopje and did not spare sharp messages about the direction in which the Football King is moving, bTV reported.
“Football will never be a luxury only for the rich!“, Ceferin said, commenting on the explosive topic of rising ticket prices, especially around the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, which is coming up this summer.
He warned that European football will remain on a different path from the American model, where expensive tickets are the norm. In his opinion, such an approach would cause a real public revolt on the Old Continent.
“Our goal is for the stands to remain full of real fans, not just people with thick wallets“, he stressed, hinting at a dangerous trend of football turning into an elitist show.
Čeferin was categorical that football in Europe is not just an industry, but part of the cultural identity. And he warned - profit should not crush tradition.
The first person in UEFA also spoke about the use of VAR technology, assessing that it has brought significant benefits, but there are also some contradictions. He particularly emphasized the illogicality of some offside decisions, where minimal details make a difference, as well as the ambiguities surrounding handball. Changes to the offside rule are already being considered, with the aim of introducing a clearer criterion - the attacker's entire torso must be in the foul.
He said VAR was particularly useful in situations such as determining offside or whether a foul had been committed - inside or outside the penalty area, but stressed that its use should be limited to “clear and obvious errors“ so as not to disrupt the dynamics of the game.