Football: Aleksander Ceferin announces that he does not want to run again in 2027 as UEFA president

Aleksander Ceferin est en poste depuis 2016 à la tête de l'instance. dpa – Christian Charisius

Président de l'UEFA depuis 2016, Aleksander Ceferin a annoncé qu'il ne se représentera pas au poste en 2027, à l'occasion du congrès de l'UEFA qui s'est déroulée ce jeudi 8 février. 

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said on Thursday that he would not seek a new term in 2027 as head of the European Football Confederation.

"I decided about six months ago that I no longer planned to run in 2027", explained Ceferin, who arrived at the head of the body in 2016 after the departure of Michel Platini, carried away by a suspicious payment affair concerning FIFA.

"The reason is that after a while every organization needs new blood, but mainly because I's away from my family for seven years now".

A case of confusing rules

This surprise announcement came a few moments after the vote by the Congress of the body in Paris for a modification of the statutes giving the possibility to the Slovenian leader to be a candidate again in 2027 for a fourth term.

The provision was approved by two-thirds of the votes, as stipulated by the statutes of the body.

The text does not remove the three-term limit, one of the key measures taken in April 2017 by Ceferin after the cascade of scandals which had led to similar restrictions at the International Federation (FIFA ) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

🎥 UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin will shortly attend a #UEFACongress press conference here in Paris.

You can watch it here: ⬇️

— UEFA (@UEFA) February 8, 2024

But he specifies that this rule, valid for all members of the executive committee, does not take into account mandates "started before July 1, 2017".

Which would theoretically have allowed Ceferin, reappointed to his post in 2023 for a new four-year term, to attempt to succeed himself in 2027 and thus remain in post until 2031.< /p>

This project caused a crisis at UEFA with the resignation of football director Zvonimir Boban on January 25.

The former Croatian playmaker, semi-finalist of the World Cup-98, slammed the door, expressing "his great concern and his total disapproval", indicating that&amp; #39;he left UEFA in the name of the “principles and values ​​in which (he believes) deeply”.

Present on multiple decisions

Arrived at the head of UEFA in 2016, Ceferin (56 years old), a lawyer by trade, had to manage numerous crises, the most important being the Super League project carried out by ;#39;first by 12 major European clubs in 2021.

If its initiators ended up giving up in the face of outcry and political mobilization, it was relaunched by the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union which ruled last December that the ;#39;UEFA had broken the law by banning the competition.

He also opposed FIFA boss Gianni Infantino on several subjects, notably regarding the plan for a World Cup every two years, which was ultimately abandoned.