Aleksander Ceferin, the head of European football governing body UEFA, has announced that he would not stand for reelection in 2027 and an unprecedented fourth term at the helm of the organization. An amendment to UEFA’s statutes passed by the organization’s Congress on Feb. 8 would have allowed him to stay in office for another four years, but the 56-year-old Slovenian lawyer cited personal reasons for his decision, saying that he wanted to spend more time with his family. He also said that he was tired of Covid, which hit the world of sports from 2020, as well as two wars and the “nonsense projects of so-called super leagues,” Reuters reported.
Ceferin has been in power since 2016, when he took over as president of UEFA from Michel Platini. He was re-elected for a second term in 2019 and a third term in 2023, when he ran unopposed. The UEFA statutes previously stipulated a maximum of three terms in office. On the terms of the amendment to UEFA’s Article 69, the first partial term that he served after Platini resigned would not have counted for the term limit.
