Ceferin to stand for fourth term as UEFA president

Before the 55 member associations gathered in Berlin on Thursday, Aleksander Ceferin confirmed he will stand for a fourth term as UEFA president. The vote comes at the 51st ordinary UEFA Congress in Astana on 22 April 2027. Ceferin has led European football’s governing body since September 2016, when he took over from the suspended Michel Platini, and would stay in office until 2031.

The reversal is his own. In February 2024 he said he would not run again: tired, by his own account, and convinced that UEFA needed “fresh blood”. In the statement published on Thursday, he frames his candidacy as an answer to “the unanimous request of the 55 national associations”. “We have faced extraordinary challenges over the past years, and we have faced them as one team,” he said, adding that “there is still important work ahead”.

Statutes amended in time

A fourth term was not in the rulebook. The 2024 Paris Congress did cap the presidency at twelve years, but Ceferin’s first term, the one inherited from Platini, was taken out of the calculation. Without that amendment, standing again would have been impossible. The English FA opposed the change and lost.

No challenger, and the FIFA standoff

No opponent has come forward so far, and Kicker reckons a candidate running against the incumbent would have no chance. The real contest sits next door: Gianni Infantino is seeking re-election as FIFA president in March 2027 in Rabat, and UEFA has published a fourteen-point reform plan, backed by 54 of its 55 associations, calling for “new leadership” at the top of world football’s governing body. The European federations have until 18 November to name a candidate. Former Switzerland international Ramon Vega has declared himself, though his eligibility is not assured.

In practice, nothing changes at UEFA headquarters: Ceferin stays at the wheel until 2031. The fight that matters now is the one with FIFA.