Ukraine great Shevchenko is not elected to UEFA ruling committee as Russia cedes place

Ukraine great Andrii Shevchenko failed to win election to the UEFA executive committee on Thursday, the day Russia formally ceded its seat on the decision-making body of European soccer.

Shevchenko, the former AC Milan star and 2004 Ballon d'Or winner, got just 15 votes from the 55 national federations — a shockingly low total for such a high-profile candidate — as one of five candidates for two vacant seats through 2027 on the UEFA ruling committee.

Those two seats were previously held by officials elected from Ukraine and Spain — Shevchenko’s predecessor leading the national federation, Andrii Pavelko, and disgraced former UEFA vice president Luis Rubiales.

Though Spain retained its seat, with Rafael Louzán getting 32 votes, Ukraine’s old seat went to Israel, whose federation president Moshe Zuares got 31 votes.

At the 2024 UEFA congress in Paris, Ukraine was among a handful of member federations who did not fully support a vote allowing UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin to extend his time in office to 2027.

Asked on Thursday if he would uphold his previous pledge to leave in 2027 after 11 years in a job that paid him, Čeferin replied, "It’s not the time to speak about that.”

Russia lost its seat on the 22-member UEFA ExCo because its most senior soccer official, Alexander Dyukov, the chief executive of Russian oil firm Gazprom Neft, did not stand as a candidate to retain his place for the next four years.

A key pending issue for UEFA is when and how to reintegrate Russia teams into international competitions like the World Cup and Champions League and end a ban imposed within days of the military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In 2022, UEFA and FIFA successfully argued at the Court of Arbitration for Sport that continuing to let Russian teams play would invite chaos in their competitions when some countries in Europe refused to play opponents from the country.

"When the war stops they (Russia) will be readmitted,” Čeferin said, restating UEFA's position on Russian senior teams. A failed UEFA push in 2023 toward letting Russian under-17 teams return provoked a rift in the UEFA executive committee.

Before the voting on Thursday, FIFA President Gianni Infantino told European soccer officials in a keynote speech he hoped Russia would soon be back in international soccer.

“Because this would mean that everything is solved” with peace in the war, Infantino said.

In a separate election for UEFA ExCo seats with four-year mandates, candidates from Estonia and Armenia won.

UEFA also now has a second woman on the ruling committee, electing Norwegian soccer president Lise Klaveness by acclamation to a new seat protected for female candidates.

UEFA pays executive committee members a taxable stipend of 160,000 euros ($178,000) each year with vice presidents getting 250,000 euros ($277,000). Those sums are unchanged since 2017, UEFA said in its financial report published on Thursday.

Čeferin got a taxable salary of 3,250,000 Swiss francs ($3.78 million) in the 2023-24 year, the report said. He also gets $300,000 from FIFA as one of its vice presidents.

UEFA secretary general Theodore Theodoridis got a taxable salary and bonus package of 1.9 million euros ($2.11 million), plus benefits.

UEFA redistributes most of the billions in annual revenue from its club competitions as prize money to the teams taking part, and uses profit from its national team competitions to pay its running costs, pay grants to its 55 member federations and maintain reserves of around 500 million euros ($550 million).

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UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin, left, speaks with UEFA general secretary Theodoros Theodoridis after a press conference after the 49th ordinary UEFA congress, in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin speaks during a press conference after the 49th ordinary UEFA congress, in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

FIFA president Gianni Infantino speaks to delegates at the 49th ordinary UEFA congress in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin shakes hands with delegates during the 49th UEFA congress in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

FIFA president Gianni Infantino speaks to delegates at the 49th ordinary UEFA congress in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

UAF President Andriy Shevchenko of Ukraine is pictured during the 49th ordinary UEFA congress, in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)