Aleksander Čeferin will stand for a fourth and final term as UEFA president, reversing his decision to step down when his current mandate ends in 2027. The Slovenian announced the decision to the presidents and general secretaries of all 55 European national associations at a meeting in Berlin on Thursday.
UEFA said the associations had unanimously asked him over recent months to reconsider. Čeferin will seek re-election at the 51st UEFA Ordinary Congress in Astana, Kazakhstan, on 22 April 2027, and victory there would keep him in charge until 2031.
A reversal of his 2024 decision
Čeferin, 58, was first elected in 2016. He can stand again only because UEFA changed the presidential term limits in its statutes at the 2024 Congress in Paris, a change the Football Association opposed. Straight after that vote, in February 2024, he said he would not run in 2027, citing the time he had spent away from his family.
"I want to thank the national associations for their trust," Čeferin said in UEFA's statement. "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."
He said his aim remained "to keep European football united, make our game stronger and leave UEFA ready for the next generation", and thanked his family, adding that he could not have taken the decision without their support.
UEFA's plan for FIFA reform
The Berlin meeting also turned to FIFA. UEFA and every member association except Azerbaijan's federation backed a set of reform proposals for world football's governing body, and the associations said they had lost confidence in FIFA's current leadership.
Under the proposals, the FIFA president would chair the Council and represent the organisation without exercising management functions. FIFA's ethics, disciplinary, audit and compliance bodies would be protected from presidential or executive interference, and changes to the international match calendar or to FIFA competitions would need the unanimous backing of the FIFA Bureau. Every member association would also receive at least $10m in extra funding on top of its FIFA Forward allocation.
UEFA said "institutional reform will not, on its own, be enough" and called for new leadership from "a respected and unifying figure, deeply rooted in football".
What happens next
Gianni Infantino is due to seek re-election as FIFA president in March. Čeferin said in August that he would not stand against him. Former Tottenham Hotspur defender Ramon Vega says he intends to run, but it is unclear whether he can gather the five letters of support needed to get on the ballot.
The deadline for FIFA presidential candidates is 18 November, and UEFA's 55 associations will meet again before 17 November to continue their discussions on FIFA's future leadership.