Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin has ruled himself out of the running to replace Gianni Infantino, but says he expects a candidate to challenge the Fifa president’s leadership in March.
Infantino has faced calls to step down after he scrapped a controversial plan to sell off stakes in Fifa’s competitions to private investors following widespread opposition.
Uefa led the backlash to the plan, with its members voting to boycott World Cups unless it was scrapped, while European football’s governing body said it has lost confidence in Infantino.
Ceferin, 57, has been widely seen as a potential challenger to Infantino, but says he does not plan to stand for the position at the Fifa Congress in March 2027.
“I’m not interested because of two reasons. One reason is that I love Uefa and I love working here, and I think that at a certain point, it’s time to also enjoy life a bit,” Ceferin said on the Rest is Politics podcast, external.
“The second point is, my credibility is much, much higher if I’m not interested in the position.”
Ceferin says he either expects 56-year-old Swiss Infantino to step down because of a lack of support, or to face a challenge to his role from another candidate.
“One option is that he realises that he doesn’t have the support, and that’s not only a political support of the ones who vote, but the political support of football community, the political support of fans, the political support of the players, former players, coaches,” he said.
“And the second option that he goes to the elections in March, but in that case, I think he will have a candidate against him. I don’t know yet who.”
Infantino’s scrapped proposal involved creating a new company – Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) – to manage the commercial and ticketing rights of all Fifa competitions, with 21% to be sold off to a private investment company.
A number of football associations have withdrawn their support for Infantino, who was accused of breaking trust “through deception” in an open letter issued by Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation.
The football associations of all the home nations have withdrawn support for Infantino, but he retains the support of South American governing body Conmebol and Caf, the African governing body.
Infantino – who worked at Uefa for 16 years, and was general secretary for nine – has been flying around the world this month in the search of public support.
On Saturday, he met with Caribbean Football Union members in the Dominican Republic and on Sunday he was at the E-Sports World Cup in Paris, attended by the French President Emmanuel Macron, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo.
On Monday, former Barcelona striker Samuel Eto’o – now president of the Cameroonian Football association – said he doesn’t “think that President Gianni Infantino has done anything wrong”.
“I remain convinced that for us as Africans, this project was something that could have been incredible,” Eto’o told CNN, external.
“It would have reset the balance of power in football to ensure that our talent doesn’t disappear and end up playing for other nations.
“Infantino has changed football. He’s given opportunities to nations that didn’t have those opportunities to take part in the most beautiful tournament, the World Cup.
“He enabled smaller nations to get seats at these competitions. He has helped our continent. He’s helped our federations to develop much more quickly, and we need to acknowledge that.”
