Slovenian football boss Aleksandar Ceferin launched what appeared to be a strong bid for the presidency of UEFA yesterday, claiming to have support from almost one-third of the European soccer body’s member associations.

The Slovenian football association, in announcing its president’s intention to stand, listed 18 European FAs out of a total of 55 that it said were prepared to support him.

Ceferin joins Dutchman Michael van Praag as a candidate for the September 14 election to replace Frenchman Michael Platini, banned for four years by FIFA for ethics violations.

The statement said that Ceferin had the backing of the federations of Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Cyprus, Macedonia, Montenegro, Russia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey, plus Slovenia, at a meeting in Russia yesterday.

Italy would also support him, the statement said, as would the four Nordic countries Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, who issued a joint statement.

“We share the same strong values related to the future of European football,” they said.

“We have the same interest to implement some reforms and have common view about good governance of the European and world football.”

Yesterday, the Slovenian FA did not say what policies Ceferin would propose and said he would make a personal address in the coming days.