UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin will not run for an unprecedented fourth term despite being cleared for his opportunity to do so.
Ceferin’s current third term as President of UEFA is set to expire in 2027 and the Slovenian was lobbying to change the President statute that would enable him to run for a fourth term up until 2031.
The changes to the UEFA ruling was green lit by members of European football associations at the UEFA Congress meeting in Paris, with 49 out of 55 voting in favour of the decision. However, shortly after this was confirmed, Ceferin announced that he no longer has plans to run again in 2027.
He stated: “I decided six months ago that I would not run any more. 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.
“I intentionally didn’t want to disclose my thoughts before, because firstly, I wanted to see the real face of some people and I saw it. I have a beautiful life in football, I have a beautiful life outside of football as well.”
England’s Football Association (FA) was the sole national organisation present who displayed a red card in Paris to reject the UEFA statute proposal, whilst 49 other associations held a green card in approval.
Along with England, Iceland and Norway also opposed the amendment to the UEFA statute which has garnered a groundswell of criticism from within the European footballing body.
Last December, upon hearing Ceferin’s push for a fourth term amendment, former Manchester United Chief Executive David Gill was leading a group to gain support to prevent Ceferin’s attempts.
Zvonimir Boban, former Chief of Football at UEFA, stepped down after expressing his “deepest concern and complete disagreement” with the proposal.
The statute change was initially in part of Ceferin’s belief that he did not serve a full term when he replaced the outgoing Michel Platini in 2016, which he believed should not have been counted as part of the UEFA Presidency three term limit.
The fourth term proposals quickly drew comparisons to Sepp Blatter’s control as FIFA President but despite the proposals passing UEFA approval, Ceferin will now step down from the position in 2027.
