POLITICO: We’re here in Monaco for the Champions League draw. At the end of this Champions League season, the final’s going to be held in Budapest. Do you have any misgivings about the fact that it’s in Budapest given Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s ongoing relationship with Russia, and tensions he’s had with Ukraine?
Čeferin: For me, if we would have any problems with that, we would become a political organization. Hungary is our member. I respect Hungarians. I respect the Hungarian government exactly the same as the German government or any other government in Europe. And if you think that we will award competitions only to the ones who are in line with mainstream politics, then you’re wrong. I mean, I don’t think that the ones who are the loudest critics are exactly the champions in human rights as well. So I don’t have any problem with Hungary. And by the way, the Hungarian government made more investment into sports infrastructure of all the governments that speak a lot but don’t do much for football.
POLITICO: Have you had any discussions about expelling Israeli clubs from your competitions over the war in Gaza?
Čeferin: Look, first of all, what’s happening with civilians there is personally hurting, killing me. It’s impossible to see these things anymore. From the other point of view, I’m not a supporter of banning the athletes. Because what can an athlete do to their government to stop the war? It’s very, very hard. Now, the ban for Russian teams is, I think, three and a half years. Did the war stop? It didn’t. So for now, I don’t know. I have to say that with the situation in Russia and Ukraine, there was a super strong political pressure. Now it’s more a pressure of the civil society than politicians, because politicians are obviously, when it comes to wars and victims, very pragmatic. I cannot say what will happen. There are talks about everything, but me personally, I’m against kicking the athletes out.
For example, the former player of Yugoslavia, [Dejan] Savićević, who is now president of the Football Federation of Montenegro, he said that in ‘92 when Yugoslavia was banned from playing the European Championship, they [the players] were all against [Slobodan] Milošević. They were all against the system. The system was non-democratic and so on. But they were kicked out. And because of the political sanctions, the result was the hatred against the West that still stays. In Serbia, for example, if you go to a referendum about NATO, 80 percent will be against. So, for me, sport should try to show the way but not by forbidding the athletes to compete. But to be honest, again, with the war, Russia-Ukraine, we had an almost hysterical political reaction. We were among the first to act, truly believing that sport could help put an end to this tragedy. Sadly, life showed us otherwise. Now I don’t see much reaction from politics. From civil society it’s huge.
And I cannot understand how a politician who can do a lot to stop the slaughter, anywhere, can go to sleep seeing all the children and all the civilians dead. I don’t understand it. You know, the idea football should solve these problems? No way.