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UEFA congress votes to admit Kosovo

Xinhua, May 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) met in Budapest on Tuesday without its president, Michel Platini, who has appealed his six-year suspension to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), and voted to admit Kosovo.

The Kosovo vote was a close 28-24 with 2 abstentions, mainly out of legal concerns. UEFA rules require members to have been recognized by the United Nations, and Kosovo's status has been under dispute since it broke away from Serbia in 2008.

Theodore Theodoridis, UEFA's acting general secretary said the decision could be taken to the CAS, but the appeal itself would not prevent Kosovo from playing as a full member. If necessary, he added, schedules could prevent Kosovo and Serbia from having to face each other.

The other significant UEFA move was to elect its executive committee's first female member, Florence Hardouin of France. Hardouin said she wanted to promote women's soccer, adding that France would be hosting the women's world championships in 2019.

With a CAS decision on Platini expected on or about May 9, some UEFA officials have suggested that if their president is not reinstated, they could use a meeting scheduled for May 18 to even vote for a replacement before the European Football Championships begin in France on June 10.

Hungary's Sandor Csanyi, President of the Hungarian Football Association and a member of UEFA's executive, did not go as far as to predict a vote for a new president at the May 18 meeting, but did say that if the CAS upheld Platini's suspension, UEFA could use the meeting to decide on how the members could vote for a replacement.

Csanyi predicted that UEFA would choose a new president this year if Platini was not reinstated.

Platini was suspended because of a payment of two million Swiss francs he received from FIFA (the International Federation of Football Associations) in 2011. Endit