< >Beckenbauer joins Platini on FIFA executive committee</P>
<>DUESSELDORF, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Franz Beckenbauer became the second high-profile former footballer to be elected to high office on Friday when he was voted onto the executive committee of FIFA, world soccer\'s governing body.
<>Beckenbauer, 61, was voted into a vacant UEFA seat on the committee by acclamation of the 52 member associations at the UEFA Congress. </P>
<>An hour earlier, Michel Platini, like Beckenbauer one of the greatest players of all time, was elected as the new president of UEFA when he beat the incumbent Lennart Johansson 27-23 votes in a straight contest. </P>
<>latini was already an ordinary member of the FIFA executive but by winning the UEFA presidency, he becomes a FIFA vice-president.
<>Johansson, in contrast, loses his seat on the FIFA executive that he has occupied since he became UEFA president in 1990.
<>Six seats had become vacant on the UEFA executive committee and a separate ballot for those positions saw Icelandic FA president Eggert Magnusson, the new chairman of West Ham United, voted off.
<>Angel Maria Villar Llona of Spain, Senes Erzik of Turkey and Joseph Mifsud of Malta were all re-elected. Mircea Sandu of Romania, Gilberto Madail of Portugal and Grigoriy Surkis of Ukraine were also elected to the committee.
<>Giangiorgio Spiess of Switzerland was not re-elected while Rakhat Aliyev of Kazakhstan and Tomas Gea of Andorra failed in their attempts to get on to the executive body. </P> |
