PARIS.- A few minutes after the institution’s Congress had voted on an amendment that allowed it to run again in 2027, the president of the UEFA, Aleksander Ceferin, caught everyone by surprise on Thursday in Parisannouncing that he has no intention of running for a new term at the head of the European football confederation.
Although this amendment was approved almost unanimously and was perceived as a decision tailored to the Slovenian leader, the 56-year-old lawyer by profession surprised by confessing his desire not to go beyond his third term.
“About six months ago I decided that I did not want to run in 2027. The reason is that after a certain time, every organization needs new blood, but mainly because I have been away from my family for seven years now,” he explained at a press conference. .
“I didn’t want to reveal my thoughts before because first I wanted to see the true face of certain people and I have seen it. I didn’t want to influence Congress,” added Ceferin, who succeeded Michel Platini in September 2016, after the Frenchman’s departure linked to some suspicious payments linked to FIFA.
It generated controversy in UEFA:
The amendment, finally approved by Congress without the vote of England, had caused discomfort within the institution.
The text does not eliminate the three-term limit, one of the key measures taken in April 2017 by Ceferin after the wave of scandals that led to similar restrictions on the International Football Federation (FIFA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
But the amendment specifies that this rule, valid for all members of the executive committee, does not take into account mandates “that began before July 1, 2017.” This would theoretically have allowed Ceferin, re-elected in 2023 for a third term, to be eligible for re-election in 2027 and remain in office until 2031.
Source: AFP
