Slovenia's Aleksander Čeferin to seek re-election as UEFA President in 2027
Aleksander Čeferin has announced he will seek another term as UEFA president in 2027.
The Slovenian lawyer, who was first elected in 2016, previously said he did not intend to run again, and his change of mind can be attributed to UEFA's moves challenging the current leadership of FIFA, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.
The announcement comes after Čeferin said in August that he would not run against the embattled FIFA president Gianni Infantino. The Slovenian told European national association bosses he would seek re-election at a meeting in Berlin, foreign media reported.
Behind his decision to stand for another four-year term appear to be European efforts to challenge the way FIFA, the football world's governing body, is being run. The aim of the Berlin meeting is to draw up a strategy to oust Infantino, whom UEFA, Europe's governing body of football, has accused of deception and breach of trust in the now abandoned World Cup sell-off plan.
Amid calls for major FIFA reforms, Čeferin's re-election bid is reportedly aimed at providing UEFA with stability at a time when it is taking a stand against Infantino.
In recent years, Čeferin repeatedly dismissed the possibility of seeking another term as UEFA boss at the 2027 congress. He did it right after controversial changes were endorsed in 2024 to extend term limits and allow him to contest the election again, as he did not serve the full length of his first term in 2016. Back then, he took over after Michel Platini was forced to resign over corruption.
UEFA insisted that Čeferin would be able to run again even if the changes had not been passed since his first term had begun before the implementation of term limits.
His decision to stand for an unprecedented fourth term comes after some European football executives and UEFA members called on the 58-year-old to change his mind and throw his hat into the ring one more time.
"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," Čeferin said at the meeting in Berlin. He said, "his ambition remains the same: to keep European football united, make our game stronger and leave UEFA ready for the next generation".
Slovenian Football Association head Radenko Mijatović told the commercial broadcaster POP TV while in Berlin that Čeferin's renewed bid was "exceptional news for world football" and for Slovenian football as well.
Photo UEFA
