Ceferin rules out being a candidate for FIFA but attacks Infantino again

The president of UEFA, Alexander Ceferinruled out this Monday presenting himself as a candidate to replace Gianni Infantino at the head of FIFA, but once again called for the resignation of the top leader of world football by ensuring that he no longer has popular support.

Ceferin He made these statements in an interview with the podcast ‘The Rest is Politics’, in which he also discussed with former British politician Alastair Campbell issues such as the granting of the FIFA ‘Peace Prize’ to the American president, Donald Trump.

Although the 58-year-old Slovenian is seen by some as the ideal candidate to prevent Infantino obtain a fourth mandate in the elections scheduled for next March, his position on the matter is firm.

“I’m not interested for two reasons. One is that I love UEFA and I love working here, and I think that, at a certain point, it’s also time to enjoy life a little,” he says. Ceferin.

And the second reason has to do with his ‘credibility’: “It is much, much greater if I am not interested in that position,” he argued.

UEFA, led by Ceferin, was one of the first confederations to withdraw its support for Infantino after his attempt to privatize FIFA competitions, including the men’s and women’s World Cup, which is why the European body still maintains a boycott of those and other events.

With that decision, he opened a debate about a candidate considered untouchable until then, with whom, he acknowledges, he has not spoken since the beginning of this crisis in world football.

“Things change every day. Every day there are different conversations. I haven’t spoken with him. But there are two options,” he says. Ceferinin reference to the steps he believes Infantino can take until the FIFA Congress is held in Morocco in six months.

The UEFA president is confident, first, that he will realize “that he does not have enough support”, and he is not referring only to the political support of those who vote, “but to the support of the football community, the fans, the players, the former players and the coaches”.

The other option, he points out, is for him to run in the March elections: “but, in that case, I think he will have a candidate against him. I still don’t know who,” he said.

Ceferin also rejected the idea, apparently embraced by Infantino and FIFA, that UEFA acts for the benefit of some of the most powerful federations and clubs in the world.

“What I hear is that they (FIFA) resort to the argument that ‘arrogant Europe is against us’, that ‘They have enough money, but I help the small and poor’, and things like that,” argues the Slovenian.

In this regard, he reminds Infantino that he is also European (Swiss) and that he was supported by UEFA to become president of FIFA, something, he regrets, “that he has forgotten.”

He also denounces that no one was previously informed about the plans to incorporate private financing into FIFA competitions, which he described as “even worse than the Super League”, as well as about the awarding of the aforementioned award to Trump.

“I found out about this matter, if I may say so diplomatically, through the media, and it is a rather strange award,” he added.