UEFA in civil war over plot to allow president Aleksander Ceferin to stay in power until 2031... as ex-Man United chief executive David Gill leads opposition to the controversial plan

UEFA have been plunged into a state of civil war following the emergence of a plot to allow president Aleksander Ceferin to stay in power until 2031. 

Mail Sport has learned that David Gill is leading the resistance to planned amendments to the UEFA Statutes that would permit Ceferin a fourth term in office, with the former Manchester United chief executive reacting angrily when the proposals were tabled during a UEFA Executive Committee in Hamburg last week.

Ceferin and his allies have been working on the plans for months before formally proposing them at an ExCo meeting before last weekend’s European Championship draw, with a view to having them ratified at UEFA Congress next February. 

The proposed amendments, which have yet to be made public, will be put to a vote of all 55 UEFA member countries at the Congress in Paris with a two-thirds majority of 28 required for them to be introduced.

Gill is understood to have spoken out against the changes in the ExCo meeting on the grounds they are undemocratic and not in the best interests of football. 

The 66-year-old also suggested that extending the current three-term limit for presidential and executive office holders risked returning UEFA to the bad old days of football governance characterised by the disgraced former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his UEFA counterpart Michel Platini. 

Ceferin was elected UEFA president in 2016 promising reform and greater transparency after Platini was given a four-year ban from football for receiving an unauthorised payment from Blatter. 

The Slovenian lawyer introduced significant governance reforms at his first UEFA Congress the following year, including setting a three-term limit for all executive appointments, with the new statute including the provision that an unexpired term should count as a full term.

Ceferin had inherited the final two-and-a-half years of Platini’s term before being re-elected unopposed in 2019 and again earlier this year at UEFA Congress in Lisbon so is due to leave office in 2027. 

Under the proposed amendment seen by Mail Sport any term which began before July 2017 would not count however, leaving the 56-year-old free to stand for election until 2031.

Gill would also be granted another potential four years in office if the proposed July 2017 amnesty is introduced, as he was first elected to ExCo in 2013 and after serving three terms is due to stand down in 2025, but he is planning to fight the changes. 

Several other ExCo members are also understood to have expressed concern over the proposals and will spend the next few weeks lobbying national associations including the FA for support.

Ceferin’s move to extend his period in office to 15 years follows a similar power grab from FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who also took charge of the world governing body in the aftermath of the Blatter/Platini scandal in 2016. FIFA also have a three-term presidential limit and until last year it was assumed that the first three years Infantino served after replacing Blatter would count as a full term.

At a meeting during last year’s World Cup in Qatar however the FIFA Council ruled that Infantino’s first 39 months in office did not count towards his term limit, clearing the way for him to stay in charge until 2031.

'The Legal Committee proposed a number of changes to the statutes which clarify some existing provisions to ensure that none are applicable retroactively - in line with a basic legal principle,' UEFA said in a statement. 

'Both the Governance Committee and the Executive Committee approved the changes which will now be considered by Congress in February.'