Aleksander Ceferin has been a vocal critic of Gianni Infantino’s reign as FIFA President in recent weeks. But he has ruled himself out of running against Infantino over two reasons.
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has confirmed he is not interested in running against Gianni Infantino to become FIFA President next year.
Ceferin has led a staunch opposition to Infantino’s Presidency following the saga that ensued after he was forced to scrap his plans to sell off stakes to private equity firms in FIFA competitions, such as the World Cup.
He recently appeared on the 23 August episode of ‘The Rest is Politics’ podcast, where Ceferin revealed why he does not want to become FIFA President.
“I’m not interested because of two reasons,” said Ceferin. “One reason is that I love UEFA and I love working here, and I think that at a certain point… it’s time to also enjoy life a bit.
“And the second point is, my credibility is much, much, much higher if I’m not interested in the position.”
Ceferin has called for Infantino to step down from his current position as FIFA President due to mounting pressure from UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and CONCACAF calling for his resignation.
While Infantino has retained the support of other FIFA confederations, such as CONMEBOL and CAF, Ceferin told the podcast that Infantino should resign for two key reasons.
“There are two options. One option is that he realises that he doesn’t have the support, and that’s not only a political support of the ones who vote, but the political support of football community, the political support of fans, the political support of the players, former players, coaches,” said Ceferin.
“And the second option, that he goes to the elections in March, but in that case, I think he will have a candidate against him. I don’t know who yet.”
Infantino can’t run for a fourth term… right?
Before he was first appointed as FIFA President in 2016, Infantino worked 16 years at UEFA.
Infantino was one of the FIFA delegates part of a UEFA Reform Committee to introduce the three-term Presidential limit following the 2015 FIFA bribery and fraud scandal.
With Infantino still committed to running for FIFA President during March 2027’s Congress meeting, he would therefore be in violation of the three-term limit and ultimately not be eligible for Presidency.
However, Infantino has been arguing he did not serve a full Presidential term during his first stint as FIFA President from 2016-2019. In December 2022, FIFA released a term clarification comment, endorsing Infantino’s stance and enabling him to run for a fourth term.
FairSquare, a non-profit human rights advocacy organisation, recently wrote a statement to FIFA’s Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee to declare why Infantino should not run.
It argues that Article 33(2), before it was overturned in December 2022, states: “The President shall be elected by the Congress for a period of four years in the year following a FIFA World Cup.
“The term of office shall begin after the end of the Congress at which the President was elected. No person may serve as President for more than three terms of office (whether consecutive or not).”
Nick McGeehan, Director of FairSquare, recently spoke to Insider Sport and said Infantino’s push for a statute change is “utterly” absurd.
“Infantino was part of the UEFA Reform Committee that proposed Presidential term limits and specified 12 years across the three term limit,” said McGeehan. “Upon the statues, they did not mention how many years, but they did impose a three term limit. So the letter of the law and its purpose is clear.
“You can not all of a sudden say this does not count and if you are, you have to outline precise reasoning as to why it does not count, given what it says in the statutes. You have to also do this in the correct procedures. The body within FIFA that should rule against this type of proposal would be the FIFA Congress, but they were completely circumvented.
“It was a decision taken by the Governance Committee and then seemingly approved by the FIFA Council two days before the 2022 FIFA World Cup Final in Qatar. It is utterly absurd.”
Is Ceferin getting off the hook?
Despite Ceferin stating he will not run for either the FIFA or UEFA Presidency, McGeehan told Insider Sport he does not believe he will not run for the UEFA Presidency after also changing the same term limit statute Infantino reverted.
In 2023, the 58-year-old 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 were green lit by members of European football associations at the UEFA Congress meeting in Paris in late 2023, with 49 out of 55 voting in favour of the decision.
However, shortly after this was confirmed, Ceferin announced that he no longer had plans to run for UEFA Presidency in 2027, despite changing the statute.
This was met with similar backlash, as a group led by former UEFA Executive Committee member David Gill was calling for the statute change to be removed from a council vote as it was viewed to be “undemocratic”.
McGeehan believes Ceferin has ‘got off the hook’ in light of the pressure coming against Infantino and his vocal criticisms of him, while changing the same statutes Infantino has been criticised for.
“The remarkable thing is, Ceferin has changed the statute with the intention of running for a fourth term as UEFA President,” said McGeehan to Insider Sport.
“But what he said at the time was, ‘I’m not going to run’. But I think he is going to run for UEFA President again next year.
“He is getting off the hook because he’s changed the statute so technically it is not a violation, but it is a gross violation of what a Presidential term limit is meant for, which is so people can not rule in perpetuity and create these systems.”
