UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin announced Thursday that he will not seek candidacy in 2027, despite earlier contemplation amid a controversial attempt to change legal rules allowing his extended tenure until 2031.
Ceferin, at the helm since 2016, cited exhaustion from managing COVID-19, conflicts and the Super League debacle as contributing factors, with the decision reportedly made for family considerations six months prior.
Opposition, including from UEFA Vice President David Gill, arose against the proposed rule change, aligning with UEFA's 12-year term limit implemented in 2017 following corruption investigations in global football.
Football bodies came under pressure to reform and prevent networks of self-serving patronage and influence-building, and Ceferin himself promised he would not stay beyond 2027 in a job that pays him about $3.5 million annually.
Ceferin aimed a barb at another perceived opponent when making a statement at a news conference after the annual UEFA Congress of 55 member federations closed.
He spoke of an unnamed European football official who made a "pathetic cry about morality" in a "narcissistic letter" to member federations.
"It was actually amusing to watch all this hysteria," said Ceferin, adding that he had not revealed his true intentions earlier because he wanted to see "the real face of some people."
His target is widely understood to be Romanian Federation President Razvan Burleanu, one of Ceferin's colleagues representing Europe on the ruling council of FIFA.
The move on term limits that Ceferin was criticized for has already been made at FIFA by its president Gianni Infantino, who attended the UEFA meeting in Paris.
Infantino also was elected in 2016 in the fallout from the corruption investigations and steered through statute changes early in his presidency that will let him stay until 2031.
Ceferin's perceived power grab was more controversial after he caused unease by seeming to support UEFA Vice President Luis Rubiales from Spain in the fallout from misconduct at the Women's World Cup final in August and trying to ease a ban on Russian teams from international competitions by letting the country's under-17 teams enter UEFA events.
