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A number of football associations have withdrawn their support for Infantino, who was accused of breaking trust "through deception" in an open letter issued by Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football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The football associations of all the home nations have withdrawn support for Infantino, but he retains the support of South American governing body Conmebol and Caf, the African governing body.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.

Infantino plan ‘worse than Super League’

Ceferin said someone "should remind Infantino that he is European" and described his Fifa counterpart's scrapped plan as "worse than the Super League".

The European Super League was a proposed breakaway league of 20 top European clubs as a rival to Uefa's Champions League, but the project fell apart days after its unveiling in April 2021 after widespread criticism.

Ceferin said that Uefa had no prior knowledge of Infantino's plan to sell stakes in Fifa's competitions, and that he found out through the media while on holiday with his family.

"They [Fifa] play on, you know, '[how] arrogant Europe is against us: They have enough money, but I help the small and the poor'," said Ceferin.

"But I think someone should remind him that he is a European, and that he was supported by Uefa, which he forgot."

He added: "I think this plan is even worse than the Super League. Super important clubs wanted to do their own league, which is wrong, and would destroy football. But in this case, football would be literally sold.

“I'm absolutely sure that the plan is dead. It's hard to to imagine what kind of people would sell the sport that belongs to everyone. We will not allow that to happen.”

Before his aborted FFE proposal, Infantino was coming under increasing pressure over his relationship with United States President Donald Trump.

After US striker Folarin Balogun had a red card suspension overturned so that he could play in his side's defeat by Belgium in the last 16 of this summer's World Cup, Trump revealed he personally called Infantino to request the sanction be lifted.

Earlier this month, Trump said it would be a "terrible mistake" to remove Infantino as Fifa president.

"That was more than shocking. We have rules, and if you don't respect your own rules, then the game doesn't make any sense," Ceferin said on the incident.

"The president of a country says: 'I called him, and I told him to look at it.' And then the Fifa president says it was an independent decision.

“I mean, for us as football fans, or for us as a governing body, that's shocking. That's shocking, and - trust me - almost everybody was shocked. Just not everybody dared to speak.”

Source: BBC

– Agencies