Berlin [Germany], October 10: Aleksander Ceferin has announced he will stand for a fourth term as UEFA president.
The Slovenian, who was first elected in 2016, told national association bosses he intended to seek re-election at a meeting in Berlin on Thursday morning.
Ceferin had already ruled himself out of standing for the FIFA presidency against Gianni Infantino, but a further four years of Ceferin arguably brings certainty and unity to UEFA at a time when it is focused on robustly challenging the FIFA presidency of Infantino.
Ceferin is only able to stand again after controversial changes were made to presidential term limits in UEFA's statutes at its 2024 Congress in Paris.
The Football Association opposed those changes, but after the alterations were voted through Ceferin said he would not be standing again in any case, saying he had made up his mind six months previously to step away when his third term ends in 2027.
However, he has now told delegates he will seek re-election through to 2031 at next year's UEFA Congress in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Ceferin said: "I want to thank the national associations for their trust.
"We have faced extraordinary challenges over the past years and we have faced them as one team. There is still important work ahead and I have therefore accepted their request.
"My ambition remains the same - to keep European football united, make our game stronger and leave UEFA ready for the next generation.
I am also deeply grateful to my family. This decision asks a great deal of them too and I could not have taken it without their understanding and support." Ceferin has been vocal in his opposition to Infantino after it emerged in July the Swiss was working on a plan to seek private investment in a company to manage the commercial interests of FIFA's tournaments, including the men's and women's World Cups.
UEFA said it had lost confidence in Infantino over his handling of that plan and announced in August it would seek to identify a credible alternative to stand against him.
There had been speculation in September that Thursday's meeting in Berlin could be the point at which UEFA coalesced around a candidate, but that has not materialized. The deadline for candidates to be submitted for the FIFA presidency is November 18, and UEFA sources have indicated a confidence that a candidate will be identified by then.
On Wednesday, former Tottenham defender Ramon Vega became the first person to officially announce their intention to challenge Infantino.
Infantino, who has also been in post since 2016, still appears to be a formidable opponent, with a strong power base particularly in Africa and South America but also among many Middle East nations, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, also appears to have softened his stance towards Infantino in a letter seen by the Press Association.
Sheikh Salman has previously joined Ceferin and Victor Montagliani, the president of CONCACAF, in calling on Infantino to step down.
However, his new letter suggests the creation of an internal working group to examine potential FIFA governance reforms.
Source: Qatar Tribune
