Aleksander Ceferin announced Thursday that he will not seek a fourth term as UEFA president in 2027, despite the ratification of controversial legislation that would allow him to prolong his mandate.
“I decided about six months ago that I’m not going to run in 2027 anymore,” the 56-year-old Slovenian lawyer told a press conference after the UEFA Congress in Paris.
“The reason is that after some time, every organisation needs fresh blood, but mainly because I was away from my family for seven years now.”
Ceferin’s stunning announcement came just after UEFA member nations overwhelmingly approved a number of law revisions, including one that would have allowed Ceferin to potentially continue in his job until 2031.
“I intentionally didn’t want to reveal my thoughts before, because first and foremost, I wanted to see the true face of some people, which I did,” said Ceferin, who was originally elected in 2016 following the demise of Frenchman Michel Platini.
“I did not want to influence Congress. I wanted them to decide (on the statutes) without understanding what I was telling you today.”
The statute governing the presidency of European football’s governing body does not eliminate the three-term restriction, but it does state that terms of office beginning or ending before July 1, 2017, will not be considered.
Ceferin imposed the rule that year as an anti-corruption measure in the aftermath of the FIFA scandal. He stated that the present legislation needed to be changed because it was not properly implemented at the time.
Ceferin was re-elected unopposed for a third term last April, only weeks after Gianni Infantino was re-elected as president of FIFA, the sport’s global governing body.
However, his suggestion to seek for a fourth term, made during an executive meeting in December, forced UEFA’s chief of football, Zvonimir Boban, to leave last month.
The former Croatia midfielder, who was part of AC Milan’s strong teams in the 1990s, described it as a “disastrous idea”.
During Thursday’s vote, the proposal received the needed two-thirds majority, with England being the only dissenting voice among the 55 member nations.
‘Strength in unity’
Ceferin denied suggestions that his organisation, which had to deal with the possibility of a breakaway Super League initiative, was falling apart under his leadership.
“UEFA is divided.” According to what I’ve read, UEFA has become irreparably split. I have read. I hope, and I may be naive, that those who assert that are humiliated now that this vote has occurred,” he stated.
Among a number of other law changes approved as part of a package of proposals that the FA also rejected was a plan to increase female representation on UEFA’s ruling executive committee.
The committee’s age limit of 70 was also overturned.
Twenty-six European countries signed a united declaration on Thursday opposing the contentious Super League concept, with Spain not included.
Real Madrid and Barcelona remain publicly committed to the Super League proposal, which shook the sport when 12 of its biggest clubs announced their participation in April 2021.
However, within 48 hours, nine of the 12 rebel clubs, including six from the English Premier League, withdrew, and the scheme failed.
Ceferin compared the Super League to “Snow White’s poisoned apple” in his address to Congress.
“There is strength in unity, and unity is the only thing that can save us,” Ceferin told the crowd.
“Today, a few people are attempting to divide us in the name of the free market, motivated by an insatiable ambition to earn ever-increasing profits for a select few.
“I understand that some of our followers are critical of us and FIFA, which is reasonable. Anti-institutional and anti-establishment sentiments are widespread.
“But we take it on the chin.” Because we understand what we stand for. We stand for an ideal: a delicate balance of opposing interests. And that comes at a cost.