Date for the General Assembly of the Estonian Football Association, where the President elections for the upcoming 4 years will take place, has been announced as 19th of June 2025 at 14:00 Tallinn time.
There has been visible agitation in Estonian, as well as Baltic, football community ever since local football legend Ragnar Klavan announced his retirement from professional football to run for the President of the Estonian Football Association at the end of last year. Klavan, who has 130 caps for the national team and 39 games for global giants Liverpool, announced his candidacy on the 10th of December 2024, challenging the longest-serving FA president in the Baltics, Aivar Pohlak.
Klavan is running for the President of the Estonian Football Association on a platform of cooperation and innovation under the slogan “Jalgpall on kõigile” (“Football is for everyone”), although details of his plans are yet to be revealed. Despite this, the general direction is clear – to challenge the existing model of governance that dominated Estonian football for two decades. As Klavan explained in an interview to ERR:
The organization is not open to innovation. The lack of transparency in financial decisions creates a sense of unequal treatment and confusion within the organization. The background of subsidies is unclear because there are no documented decisions. If we start with this narrow scope of leadership — essentially a one-man band — there is an automatic ceiling to how much it can grow. That, to me, is the biggest issue.
Aivar Pohlak, who is also the founder of Premium liiga club FC Flora and co-owner of FC Kuressaare, has been in office for five consecutive terms, since 2007. Responding to the challenge from Klavan, he underlined his in-depth knowledge of Estonian football and emphasised the need for stability and for keeping ambition of large clubs in check, so that it does not come at the expense of progress of small clubs.
Estonian Premium liiga – the country’s top level of the football pyramid – is ranked 45th in the UEFA Men’s association rankings, behind both Lithuania (43rd) and Latvia (36th).
Source: https://soccernet.ee/artikkel/kuupaev-teada-pohlak-ja-klavan-ristavad-piigid-juuni-keskel
