One of his first tasks will be the search for a new secretary general of the association. Current secretary Aleš Zavrl is to head the UEFA licensing committee at the UEFA headquarters starting on the 1st of March. "We will miss him a lot. He's an extremely hard-working and competent man. It will be difficult to replace him in such a short time," said the new president of the Slovenian Football Association (NZS), Rade Mijatović, a few days ago at the traditional New Year's gathering at Brdo pri Kranju.

Right after his election Mr. Mijatović was positively surprised by the number of text messages he received. "The reactions were overwhelming. I received more than 800 SMS messages. I did not expect such support." The real work will begin after the New Year holidays. At the moment Mijatović is getting accustomed to his new position, with the help of Mr. Zavrl.

What Mr. Mijatović would like to do most of all is improve the national football championship as a product. "We have to take advantage of what's happening now. Together with the media we have to stress the significance and quality of the Slovenian football league. With proactive marketing we have to bring more funds into football, which would then be distributed to the clubs."

The new president does not want to spend any more time reflecting on the heated election campaign, in which he beat his opponent Matjaž Nemec. "At one point you have to draw a line and put an end to all things. Whatever happened cannot be changed. We have to look ahead and see what kind of good things we can accomplish in the future."

Wasn't sure whether to be ashamed or sad
Aleksander Čeferin, the president of UEFA, also expressed his opinion about the election campaign. Prior to the election Čeferin said he was not going to meddle in the »internal affairs« of the NZS. From Brdo pri Kranju he briefly told those present at the New Year's gathering that he was not thrilled about the election, but that there was no use talking about it now. Speaking to TV Slovenija he then confirmed that "the campaign was a bit unusual and that I wasn't sure whether to be ashamed or sad". Čeferin's comments in an interview he gave for the NZS magazine had an even sharper tone.

"I am appalled to find out what some people are prepared to do in order to reach a certain position, and the collateral damage in all of this is the NZS. I had the feeling I was watching the most dirty political debate. The answer to how much damage was done to football by all of this will come in the months to follow," said Čeferin.

Visiting his homeland, where he regularly returns from Nyon every end of the week, Čeferin also presented some of his views three months after being elected as the head of the Union of European Football Associations. "I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent organization at UEFA. More unpleasant was the realization that the differences between football clubs are larger than I thought before coming to UEFA. The financial disparities among clubs are great and consequently there is also a great difference in quality. It's a serious issue. I was positively surprised, though, by the big clubs which accepted my viewpoints. I had meetings with the presidents of all the biggest clubs in Europe. I clearly told them that a closed league was out of the question."

And what are Čeferin's views on the introduction of new technology in football? The most recent example was the first ever use of video material in awarding a penalty kick at the FIFA Club World Cup. "That was just an experiment. The matter is not clear enough yet and at the moment we don't plan on introducing it. We see a lot of problems in it. Football is also interesting because you can later analyze a match and whether a referee made a right decision or not. There has to be a flow of play. If we stop play at every offside situation and wait for the referees or other officials to look at screens and make decisions then football loses its charm. However, I'm not saying that new technology will not be used to a certain extent."

Aleksander Čeferin added that his new job was extremely interesting and that most important for him was to have the understanding of his family.

M. R.; translated by K. J.