Andrea Agnelli is the new president of Eca (European club association). This was decided by the general assembly of the association of European clubs meeting at the President Wilson hotel in Geneva. The Juventus number one, the first Italian to hold the position of Eca president, succeeds Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. The assignment now opens up new scenarios regarding Andrea Agnelli's permanence at the helm of Juve, a position he could leave to devote himself entirely to his new demanding international role.
Together with Agnelli, Josep Maria Bartomeu, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, Ed Woodward, Peter Lawwell, Pedro López Jiménez, Michael Gerlinger, Ivan Gazidis, Jean-Michel Aulas, Domingos Oliveira, Edwin van der Sar were elected to the ECA Executive Board , Michael Verschueren, Dariusz Mioduski, Anders Hørsholt & Aki Riihilahti.
Furthermore Agnelli and Gazidis (executive director of Arsenal) will represent the ECA in the UEFA Executive Committee. The ECA general assembly also awarded the honorary presidency to Rummenigge who has led the association of European clubs since its inception in 2008.
“An Italian president of the ECA is very good, it's a great thing. His election certainly helps our sports system to have even more prestige ”, says the president of Coni, Giovanni Malagò. “Besides being an Italian – adds Malagò on the sidelines of the presentation of the military fencing world championships at the Club of Officers of the Armed Forces in Rome – he is the president of a club whose history we know very well, an almost unique case in the world, a symbol of the participation of a family nucleus around a team”.
"The election of Andrea Agnelli, to whom I offer my congratulations, confirms Italy's leading role in football on the international scene and represents a well-deserved personal bonus", said the president of the FIGC, Carlo Tavecchio. "I am sure that he will be able to best cover such a prestigious position and that, at the helm of the ECA, he will make a valuable contribution to the promotion of Italian and European football in the world", adds the number one of Italian football in a note.
