On Friday, UEFA announced that Oleksandr Ceferin will not have an opponent in the elections on April 5 in Lisbon. Thus, the Slovenian will remain at the head of the continental European forum for another four years.

Oleksandr Cheferin, unopposed

Ceferin, 55, is the only contender for the job, which will be appointed to him during the UEFA Congress on April 5 in Lisbon, after the deadline for applications on Thursday. This will be Ceferin’s third four-year term, writes Agerpres.

In October, the Slovenian announced his intention to run again, thanking “personally the 55 member federations for their letters of support sent in recent weeks in connection with the elections”.

A lawyer by profession, Ceferin was previously president of the Slovenian Football Association from 2011 to 2016.

Reserved and less charismatic than his predecessor, former France international Michel Platini, Ceferin has long opposed the projects of his FIFA colleague Gianni Infantino, a former UEFA number two, including a short-lived World Cup project every two years instead of the traditional quadrennial one.

The big challenge that Ceferin had to face was the project of the European Super League, a dissident continental competition that appeared in the spring of 2021 and soon collapsed due to general opposition.

The project, launched by 12 major European clubs, was intended to replace the lucrative Champions League, which angered most football fans.

Only the three founding clubs, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Juventus Torino, continue to support the project, which will be decided in early 2023 by the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg.