UEFA
What is PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi’s role with UEFA?
The Paris Saint-Germain boss has held a number of important roles within club soccer and is the face of the club’s Qatari ownership.
Nasser Al-Khelaifi has risen to become one of the most powerful men in European club soccer, with a number of roles in France and beyond.
The 50-year-old is best known as the president and CEO of Paris Saint-Germain, the French team that has come to dominate Ligue Un over the past decade. He began the role in the French capital in 2011, shortly after Qatar Sport Investments (QSI) took over the club.
Al-Khelaïfi is also the chairman of the influential European Club Association (ECA). The ECA is distinct from UEFA but it draws together the professional clubs playing in UEFA competitions.
Both UEFA and FIFA recognise the ECA as the sole independent body for clubs competing in European soccer competitions, a group comprising 220 clubs.
What does Nasser Al-Khelaifi do on the UEFA Executive Committee?
Although Al-Khelaifi has not been voted in to a position of power within UEFA, the PSG boss does hold a key role within the organisation’s structures. He is one of two ECA representatives that sits on UEFA’s Executive Committee.
The other member is Atlético Madrid president Miguel Ángel Gil Marín.
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The UEFA Executive Committee is the organisation’s “supreme executive body” which is comprised of 20 members. Representatives in the UEFA Executive Committee are given four-year terms. Earlier this year Al-Khelaifi won re-election to the prestigious group, ensuring that he will remain at the centre of European club soccer until 2017.
Addressing the Executive Committee after winning re-election, Al- Khelaïfi was ambitious about the group’s position going forward.
“There has been an enormous shift in the role clubs play in the decisions that shape European club football. Today, we are a dynamic, democratic, and inclusive institution – seeking influence and a voice for the many, not the few.”