Ceferin won’t stand for another term as UEFA president
ALEKSANDER CEFERIN kept football associations in the dark about his intention not to stand for another term as UEFA president in 2027 prior to announcing it to the media yesterday.
The Slovenian said he had known for six months that he would not run again, but had delayed going public because he wanted to see the ‘real face’ of some of those close to him.
He said it had been ‘amusing’ to watch ‘hysteria’ build around the prospect of him staying on until 2031, and made his announcement at a press conference after UEFA Congress rather than confirming it in his Congress speech to member associations.
He said he had shared his decision with his family and ‘some of his friends and colleagues’ but it is understood this was not news he had divulged to the English FA, which just over an hour earlier had voted at UEFA Congress in Paris against a rule change that made a fourth term a possibility.
In a seven-minute monologue, Ceferin launched an extraordinary attack on former ally Zvonimir Boban, who resigned as UEFA technical director last month over the proposed statute change.
‘I intentionally didn’t want to disclose my thoughts before, because of two reasons: first, I wanted to see the real face of some people and I saw it; I saw good and bad parts,’ Ceferin said.
‘And of course I didn’t want to influence the Congress. I wanted them to decide not knowing what I’m telling you today, because that’s an honest decision.
‘I have to say that it was actually amusing to watch all this hysteria around and at the same time getting all the messages of support from my federations.’
FA sources said even if it had been told about Ceferin’s intentions, it would have made no difference to how it voted at Congress, because its vote was on the principle around term limits rather than being about an individual.
Ceferin left the press conference after three questions, leaving his general secretary Theodore Theodoridis to field a follow-up on whether his actions had embarrassed the FA. ‘I don’t think so, we have a democracy,’ he said.
Boban chose not to respond to a request for comment.