Aleksander Ceferin, president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), announced on Monday, August 24, that he will not run for the presidency of FIFA, football's world governing body, ruling himself out of a direct contest against incumbent Gianni Infantino.
Ceferin, the most prominent opponent of the FIFA president, said he was not interested in the role, but made clear he still wants Infantino out of office and that UEFA intends to support another candidate to challenge him at the vote set for March 2027.
Speaking on the British podcast The Rest is Politics, released on Monday, the 58-year-old Slovenian said he loved UEFA and the work he does there. He added that his credibility as an opponent of Infantino was far greater precisely because he had no interest in the FIFA presidency for himself.
He said UEFA would put forward a candidate against Infantino, though he did not yet know who that would be.
UEFA's boycott threat
Ceferin has led UEFA, the governing body of European football, since 2016. Infantino has been mired in crisis since abandoning a contested plan to open FIFA to private investors.
Under Ceferin's leadership, UEFA had announced it would boycott all FIFA competitions. It has maintained that threat even after Infantino dropped the privatisation plan, since UEFA wants him to leave his post altogether.
Ceferin said Infantino had two options: either he would realise he lacked the support needed for re-election, or he would stand anyway, in which case Ceferin believed there would be a candidate against him, though he said he did not yet know who. He added that he had not spoken to Infantino, a former UEFA secretary general, since the crisis began.
Ceferin accused FIFA of playing on a narrative that "arrogant Europe" was against it, but said someone ought to remind Infantino that he is himself European and was once backed by UEFA.
A possible rival candidate
According to various media reports, Victor Montagliani, the Canadian president of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf), could stand against Infantino, who is currently the only declared candidate. Alongside UEFA, Concacaf has voiced disagreement with Infantino's plans, as has the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The three confederations recently signed a joint statement calling for the "football family" to rally behind their cause.
Infantino's response
The remarks came in response to comments from Infantino, published on Sunday on FIFA's website. Infantino said FIFA wanted to develop football in each of its 211 member federations worldwide, adding that some unfortunately did not need that and did not want others to progress, but that the gap between the major footballing countries and the rest had to be narrowed.
Infantino met Montagliani over the weekend at a meeting of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) in the Dominican Republic. He said he believed the overall situation was positive and that he was very happy with all the support he was receiving, while acknowledging that a great deal had happened in recent weeks.
