Viktor Orbán Receives UEFA Leaders

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán hosted the leaders of the European Football Association (UEFA), including President Aleksander Ceferin, at a working lunch at the Carmelite Monastery on Wednesday. The meeting was also attended by Sándor Csányi, President of the Hungarian Football Association.

The UEFA delegation arrived in Budapest for Wednesday’s Europa League football final between AS Roma and Sevilla at Puskás Aréna. The final was eventually won by Sevilla after penalties.

Aleksander Ceferin, President of the European Football Association (UEFA), said that in the Hungarian capital “everything is always very well organized,” and that Puskás Arena is “magnificent and impressive,” which is just enough to ensure that Budapest can host major sporting events on a regular basis.

In an exclusive interview with M4 Sport,

Ceferin said that Budapest is a great city, easily accessible in the middle of Europe, and that the good organization of events is not something that can be found in every European country.

On the possibility of Budapest hosting the future Champions League finals, Ceferin was cautious, saying that anything was possible, but that the next period was not yet open for bidding, and that Hungary was not a candidate yet.

The UEFA president also said that the idea of a so-called Central European League had been discussed several times before, the idea being that teams from the region that are much stronger than their rivals in their home league would compete in a separate league for the chance to get into the European Cup. However, Ceferin said that the national leagues should not be compromised, that it would be difficult to fit matches from such a league into the schedule, and that the teams have so far communicated to the representatives of the European federation that they want to qualify for international cups from their home league.

Featured photo via MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher