UEFA chief Ceferin: 'Underdog' leader taking fight to FIFA's Infantino

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says one of his mantras is to “choose your battles”, but European football’s governing body is now locked in a bitter fight with FIFA boss Gianni Infantino.

Ceferin has previously called himself an “underdog” leader, despite having been at the helm of UEFA since 2016 and pushed through a statute change which will allow him to run for a fourth term next year.

One battle the 58-year-old Slovenian appears ready to sit out is as a challenger to Infantino, who is seeking a fourth and final term as FIFA president in Rabat next March.

“No,” he told Politico last September when asked if he was considering standing for the FIFA presidency.

Infantino is under severe pressure for the first time, in part due to UEFA’s reaction to his scrapped private investor plan.

Ceferin would be a crucial ally to any potential challenger to Infantino.

UEFA’s threat to boycott the World Cup if Infantino pushed through his proposals arguably led to the Swiss’s humiliating climbdown in ditching the plan last Saturday.

Terrence Burns, who served as brand and marketing strategist for two successful World Cup host bids, believes Ceferin emerged a big winner from the fall-out.

“Ceferin played it well,” Burns told AFP.

“UEFA carried the fight collectively while he issued no personal statement at any point.

“The boycott threat was aggressive and credible, which is a rare pairing.”

Ceferin served in the Yugoslav Army in the 1980s, before also being called up by the Slovenian forces during their War of Independence in 1991.

“Luckily I never had to shoot (anybody),” he once told ESPN.

Ceferin, like Infantino a lawyer by profession, will hope he has picked the right moment for his latest battle.

“I think you should in professional and private life, choose your battles,” he told Politico last year.

“You should fight when it’s really a reason to fight, but every fight is tiring.”

‘Pressures and threats’ 

Last week brought to a head tensions between UEFA and FIFA that had surfaced during the World Cup.

Ceferin boycotted the World Cup final last month in protest, largely over the controversy surrounding US striker Folarin Balogun’s red card in their last-32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

FIFA stepped in and suspended Balogun’s ban, freeing him to play against Belgium in the last 16.

The decision led to widespread condemnation, especially when it emerged US President Donald Trump had intervened by calling Infantino.

The successful taking down of the investment plan is not the first time Ceferin and UEFA have played a pivotal role in confronting FIFA under Infantino and won.

Their opposition — along with South American confederation CONMEBOL — ultimately forced Infantino in 2021 to scrap the idea of holding the World Cup every two years.

Ceferin also turned his fire effectively on the European Super League when it was launched in April, 2021.

He was so angry about the failed breakaway, he called then-Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli “a snake”, even though he was godfather to the Italian’s daughter.

“I didn’t sleep, eat or drink for 48 hours, because I had phone calls with governments and royal families… and pressures and threats,” he said in 2021.

Ceferin and UEFA, despite the quick collapse of the ESL, still felt obliged to reform their showpiece club competition, the Champions League.

Ceferin has had bumps in the road during his tenure since first being elected 10 years ago.

A UEFA statute change introduced in 2024 did not completely erase the three-term limit for the presidency, but stipulated terms started or served before July 1, 2017 should not be taken into account.

That paved the way for Ceferin to seek a fourth term next year, drawing criticism.

It sparked the resignation of Croatian football great Zvonimir Boban as UEFA’s chief of football.

“Ironically, it was the UEFA president himself that proposed and launched a set of reforms in 2017 which were introduced to prevent such a possibility,” said Boban.

“The reforms were to football’s great credit, and that of the UEFA president. His shift away from these values is beyond comprehension.”

Ceferin’s next goal will be to prevent Infantino, who was re-elected unopposed in 2019 and 2023, from winning his own fourth term in charge of FIFA.