Ceferin rules out Fifa presidency bid as Infantino targets poorer nations’ support

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin has ruled out standing against Gianni Infantino in next year’s Fifa presidential election, but said he expects the incumbent to face an opposition candidate.

Ceferin has been among the most prominent critics of Infantino after the Fifa president proposed creating a commercial body to manage tournament rights and selling a 20% stake to private investors. The proposal was abandoned, but the dispute has intensified into a wider battle over the future direction of football’s global governing body.

“There are two options,” Ceferin told The Rest Is Politics: Leading podcast.

“One option is he realises 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.

“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.”

Reuters has contacted Fifa for comment on Ceferin’s criticism of Infantino and the governing body.

Sources familiar with the process told Reuters last week that Uefa, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and Concacaf were considering a third possibility: a vote of no confidence in Infantino before the ballot in March next year.

Ceferin, who is Slovenian, said he had not spoken to Infantino since the controversy began. He suggested that his decision not to seek the Fifa presidency strengthened his position as a critic of the current administration.

He described Infantino’s abandoned commercial proposal as a bigger threat to football than the European Super League project, which Uefa opposed successfully in 2021. Ceferin also rejected the idea that opposition had come only from Europe’s wealthier football nations.

“On one side was England, Germany, who you understand don’t want that, because this money is not so big for them. But on the other side was San Marino, Cyprus, Liechtenstein … They said: we’re not for sale,” he added.

Infantino appeals to smaller associations

Infantino, who has been Fifa president since 2016, has given no indication that he intends to leave the role. He is seeking to present himself as an ally of less wealthy national associations and win re-election, which would keep him in office until 2031.

In a video interview released by Fifa after a meeting with members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) in the Dominican Republic, Infantino said the organisation had a responsibility to reduce the financial gap between richer and poorer football associations.

“We want to grow football in every one of our 211 countries in the world,” he said.

“We need to find investments for all the others opportunities for all the others. This is about, indeed, finding and giving opportunities, access, and resources to world football.

“Some, unfortunately, don’t need and they don’t want that others grow, but we need to narrow this gap between the big, big countries and all the others.

“That’s what we have been trying to do in the last 10 years and also in the last 10 weeks, and what we will be continuing to do in the next years.”

Infantino, who has support from the African and South American confederations, has sought to go around the regional governing bodies during the dispute by appealing directly to individual Fifa members.

The CFU is part of Concacaf. Infantino said he had been pleased by the welcome he received while attending an under-14 tournament in the Dominican Republic.

Concacaf president Victor Montagliani had asked Infantino not to attend, arguing that his presence would distract from the football. Infantino said the event, which was financed through Fifa development funds, demonstrated the type of work carried out during his presidency.

Six Nordic Fifa members Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the Faroe Islands also met in Helsinki on Sunday and released a joint statement supporting calls for Infantino to resign.

Ceferin rejected suggestions that Europe was blocking efforts to support developing football nations. He also criticised what he regarded as attempts to portray Uefa as an entitled European elite.

“What I hear is that they play on, you know, ‘Arrogant Europe is against us’,” he said. “But I think someone should remind him [Infantino] that he is a European, and that he was supported by Uefa, which he forgot.”