Čeferin became the third president of the Football Association of Slovenia, after Rudi Zavrl (1991-2009) and Ivan Simič (2009-2010). "Čeferin would be by far the best candidate. The Slovenian football needs a burden-free person, someone well educated, who would bring peace into the Slovenian football family," Drago Kos had said for MMC a month before the elections. At first Kos was one of the names mentioned as candidates to succeed Simič. The Čeferin's candidacy was filed by the association of football referees, and six inter-municipal associations. He convinced not only the inter-municipal football associations (MNZ) of Ljubljana, Ptuj, Nova Gorica, Lendava, Gorenjska and Koper, but also most of the so-called Eastern Block (Maribor, Murska Sobota, Celje).

He played for Grosuplje in the third league
He proved the requested period of activity in football with his work as a standing coworker of the executive board and legal adviser of the indoor football club Lesna industrija Litija; he has been the member of the executive board and player of the F. C. Ljubljana Lawyers since 2005, and an external coworker since 2006, and since 2010 a member of the executive board of the NK Olimpija Ljubljana football club.

"I play both indoor football and regular football once a week," he said several months later in the MMC chat-room. He regularly scored in the veteran league, he also participated in a number of European and World Championships for lawyers. In the beginning of the 80s he was a registered football player of the then third league club Grosuplje; he played with Primož Gliha.

He finds karate extremely relaxing
He trained also in basketball, and in karate. He is still practicing the Japanese martial art. "For me karate is of utmost importance. I trained in karate as a child, but then I saw it from a very different perspective – then I just tried to learn how to punch somebody, how to attack. Now I train individually with Takashi Tokuhisa from Japan, and have a totally different approach to this sport. We work on breathing, meditation… I enjoy it more than ever, it relaxes me. After a training session – and I usually train early in the morning – I am capable of working until evening, easily," he explained in March 2011, when he was still getting used to the work as an official of the Slovenian football at the highest level.

"At times I wonder - do I really need this? Business trips take the most time, but as I love football I believe I can do it. My family understands me, so hopefully I will manage," he added.

Business with Zdovc was short-lived
Probably his most known venture into basketball was his assistance to Matjaž Smodiš; he was his lawyer at his transfer from Krka to Kinder from Bologna in 2000: "The regulations were such that the club which sold such a young player abroad was punished with a transfer to the lowest league. So Krka made a legal trick, and first sold Smodiš to Grosuplje, and Grosuplje sold him to Kinder – since Grosuplje was already playing in the lowest league, and it remained there. The officials of the basketball associations were extremely angry, and later changed the rules because of that. The transfer of Boštjan Nachbar from Dravograd to Benetton was arranged in the same way – Dravograd at that time didn't even play in a league."

Later Čeferin founded a sport agency for representation of basketball players with Jure Zdovc, but even before concluding the first business they realized it was not their cup of tea, and gave the company to Marijan Kraljević.

During the five years of leading the Slovenian Football Association he managed to placate the communications with the players of the national team, which had been far from exemplary during the reign of his predecessor Simič. He was less successful in appointing selectors, as neither Slaviša Stojanović nor Srečko Katanec managed to take Slovenia to any of the great competitions during his term. Europe is enthusiastic about the National Football Centre in Brdo pri Kranju, but Čeferin never fails to mention that the state had not contributed to the centre at all, not even a cent. The interest of the public in the national club competition has been growing these last years, while Čeferin is less satisfied with the attitude of politicians and the state in general towards football. The present legislation is a hindrance to further development of football. We will see whether something will change now that we have a Slovenian in Nyon.

M. R.; Translated by G. K