Almost everywhere you turned in Munich last week, you saw football royalty, and high-level talk. The Champions League final almost stands alone in bringing the great and good of the game together. In one corner, there was Sir Alex Ferguson being shepherded by Gary Neville, endearingly calling him “boss”. In another were a series of legends like Ruud Gullit and Javier Zanetti.
Anyone who looked hard enough might also have seen something else, in the more secluded corners of high-priced hotels like the Rosewood or Bayischer Hof.
That was potentially the beginning of a football rebellion. A number of senior figures are now coming together to put forward a challenger to Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin for 2027. A football great like Andriy Shevchenko is preferred – with even Michel Platini being mentioned in some quarters – but the real point is how a resistance is taking shape.
That is down to a growing concern and frustration at the direction of the European game, and the manner in which huge decisions are taken.
Some couldn’t help notice the symbolism at the end of the Champions League final itself. Ceferin handed the European Cup over to Paris Saint-Germain, who are headed by his close friend, Nasser Al-Khelaifi. There were naturally warm congratulations between the two officials. It arguably marked the culmination of an era, and not just for the Qatar-owned European champions.
Through his presidency of PSG and crises like the Super League, Al-Khelaifi has risen to become the chairman of the European Club Association [ECA], whose power has significantly increased under the Qatari’s leadership. The ECA now runs the Champions League as a joint venture with Uefa – which is exactly what the big clubs wanted though the Super League – and it is almost viewed as a third major football institution with Fifa and Uefa. Many now question where Uefa ends and the ECA begins.
And here was the European Cup being handed over.
It comes after a period where senior football figures have become increasingly concerned at Al-Khelaifi’s “direct involvement in decision-making”, according to one source, as well as what they perceive as a Uefa that now increasingly prioritises the elite club game at the expense of its members, the national associations.
A further problem is that they don’t feel there is the political space to express any of this. Underneath Ceferin’s close relationship with Al-Khelaifi, the Uefa president’s main support comes from a bloc of 14 countries, most from the Balkans given his Slovenian background. This has driven the agenda at the federation, to the point that many national associations do not feel their views are sufficiently heeded. The frustration has only added to the doubts over the game’s direction, fostering a general sense that elite football is being co-opted by greater powers, without sufficient input by its stakeholders.
A common complaint is that there isn’t even the room to stage serious debate about key matters for the sport.
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This has all been further aggravated by events in Paraguay at the end of last month, when Ceferin’s Uefa were presented with what should have been a huge political victory. Numerous senior figures were infuriated by Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s late arrival at his own Congress, having instead stayed longer in Saudi Arabia with Donald Trump.
Ceferin eventually led a walk-out of European delegates, that culminated in an unusually strident Uefa statement criticising Infantino for pursuing “private political interests”. This had initially energised a lot of the game, right up to senior EU officials who have similarly expressed concern about football governance.
There was a hope that pressure might build for something new… only for that to be replaced by bemusement. Within four days, Uefa released a statement insisting the “recent episode was isolated” and that a relationship of “ongoing collaboration” is “marked by open communication and mutual respect”.
Few in football believe this given the known tension between Ceferin and Infantino, who is set to be the subject of some focus this week with the start of his Club World Cup. Some sources are keen to put this entire dynamic in the context of their frayed relationship.
Others even believe there will eventually be a heave to put Al-Khelaifi forward as a candidate for Fifa president.
The Football Association’s position in this has been the source of intrigue among European nations, too. While chief executive Mark Bullingham was, in February 2024, the only federation leader to vote against controversial reforms that would allow Ceferin to stand again in 2027, and former Uefa treasurer David Gill sparked a row with the Slovenian at one meeting over governance issues, tension is understood to have calmed. England will host Euro 2028 along with the rest of the British nations and Ireland, and then the Women’s World Cup in 2031. FA chair Debbie Hewitt is currently vice-president of Fifa. The FA is viewed as trying to play both sides.
Other positions are being scrutinised with more interest by insiders. The last Uefa Executive Committee, at the Europa League final in Bilbao, confirmed the appointment of Ceferin loyalist Zoran Lakovic to deputy general secretary under long-time Uefa grandee Theodore Theodoridis. Already Uefa director of national associations, Lakovic is seen as having accumulated considerable power at Uefa, as Ceferin’s “man on the ground”. This only solidifies the Serbian’s rise, especially with many expecting Theodoridis to soon retire.
Ceferin’s own future after 2027 is viewed with considerable intrigue. He suggested he would leave at the 2024 Congress, only to then immediately go back on that, with language that was very open to interpretation.
Either way, there’s now momentum around a new political bloc, who want to ensure they have their own candidate for 2027. It might well be a football legend. It is certain to shape football politics – and maybe the game’s future direction – for the next two years.
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