October 8 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin told delegates at a meeting of UEFA’s 55 member associations in Berlin (Thursday) that he will stand for a fourth term.
His decision to run again comes at a crucial time for international football following FIFA’s leadership crisis following President Gianni Infantino’s failed attempt to sell all of FIFA’s commercial rights to a new private equity-backed company: FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE). It proved to be the last straw in growing discontent over Infantino’s manipulation of the world game to his own agenda.
UEFA and Ceferin have led the subsequent battle to bring change to FIFA and the dismissal of Infantino alongside Concacaf and AFC. Infantino has refused to deal with his critics, but has instead launched his own assault on Concacaf president Victor Montagliani and AFC president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim al Khalifa, sending his team of member associations to FIFA to sow division within Concacaf and AFC member countries, usually with the promise of money, but for bigger nations that cannot be hosted by other competitions. FIFA and millions of FIFA pledges. favors
Infantino has taken a private jet provided by Qatar to press for his future and has shamelessly toured the confederations, picking out the hungriest and most needy and greedy of FIFA members.
It has had no success in Europe, where nations except Azerbaijan, whose former secretary-general Elkhan Mammadov is head of FIFA’s member services team, have universally and furiously withdrawn their support for Infantino and ordered Ceferin to lead their opposition.
Ceferin has said he has no interest in running for FIFA presidency next March. The UEFA presidential re-election will take place at the 51st UEFA Ordinary Congress in Astana, Kazakhstan on 22 April 2027.
Having initially said he would not stand for re-election after a bylaw change allowed him to run for another term, Ceferin said he reconsidered his position after being approached by UEFA’s national federations.
Having led the fight against the bankrupt European Super League, the Slovenian lawyer is Europe’s clear and obvious leader in the continent’s demand for change at FIFA. A change in UEFA leadership would now have an impact on Europe’s call for a reformed international game.
“I want to thank the national associations for their trust. We have faced extraordinary challenges over the past few years and we have faced them as one team. There is still important work ahead and therefore I have accepted their request,” Ceferin said.
“My ambition remains the same: to keep European football together, make our game stronger and leave UEFA ready for the next generation.”
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