“Czech Football Head Petr Fousek Elected to UEFA Executive Committee”

He is still full of impressions, everything comes to him gradually. He wouldn’t even count the congratulations. “They wished me the best of European football, including a red-hot mobile phone,” smiles Petr Fousek.

He became the third Czech to join the UEFA executive after Václav Jír and František Chvalovský, who was a member of the committee between 1996 and 2002. While Chvalovský succeeded only on the second attempt, which is common, the current Strahov chairman is the first. He claimed the third-best result out of 11 candidates seeking the seven vacancies on the committee.

“The number of 40 votes corresponded with my estimates. On the first page of international politics textbooks is: Have good relations with your neighbors. At the time when I decided to submit my candidacy, my first trip was to Slovakia, because together we belong to the group of eight Central European unions. In February, we had a meeting in Budapest, where all these unions expressed their support for me. Of course, that would not be enough,” Fousek explains.

“Elections are secret, few will tell you to your face that they will not vote for you… In the executive committee, there is a balance between west, east, south, north and center. My advantage is that I am acceptable to everyone, of course language skills will help with that, I have good relations with the great powers,” says the 60-year-old head of FAČR, why he also had support from England, Italy, Spain, France and Germany.

“I greatly appreciate that I have the same number of votes as the president of the Spanish union, and this is the first time I have run for office.”

Fousek chaired the organizing committee of the EURO under-21 players, Prague is now preparing for the final of the Conference League. The new member of the UEFA executive would like to bring one of the other final tournaments in a certain category to the Czech Republic, as well as the UEFA Congress.

“Czech football should benefit from my election. For example, with the German association, we are waiting for negotiations on a memorandum, we can learn from others. I want to use my position to help Czech football as much as possible,” assures Fousek.

“In the pre-election period, I communicated with all the member unions, and thanks to my erudition, I often received questions about how I would solve this or that with them. I bring experience. One of my goals is to bring much more European football culture to the Czech Republic – real football works the way it looks in Europe,” he emphasizes.

Thanks to its representative in UEFA, Czech football will now have the opportunity to influence regulations, strategy, the way finances are distributed and the structure of European competitions.