English FA votes alone against Uefa rule change that allows Ceferin another term

The Football Association stood alone in showing the red card to changes in Uefa’s rules which will allow Aleksander Ceferin the option of standing for a further four-year term as president from 2027.

The FA chief executive, Mark Bullingham, was the sole national federation delegate to hold up a red card rejecting the amendments at the Uefa Congress in Paris, but the motion passed with 49 of the 55 associations holding up a green card in support.

The amendment would mean Ceferin’s partial first term, which began in September 2016, would not count towards the three-term limit, allowing him the possibility of a further term between 2027 and 2031.

The FA, along with Norway and Iceland, had sought to break up the bundle of rule amendments, because it wholeheartedly supports most of the measures proposed, including an increase in minimum female representation on the Uefa executive committee from one to two.

However, a decision was taken to vote for the amendments as a package, forcing the FA to vote against the term limit amendment as a matter of principle, rather than a vote against Ceferin himself.

In his opening speech to Congress, Ceferin said: “My daughter actually told me: ‘Father, sometimes I think you are a character from The Lord of the Rings.’ But I’m not. I’m not interested in the ring.”

In the JRR Tolkien books, the One Ring gives power to its wearer to rule over all those who wore the other rings. Ceferin said: “The ancient Romans said: ‘Whatever you do, do it wisely.’ We should all work that direction, then life would be much easier.”

An FA spokesperson said: “We believe that it was always intended that a principle of three terms of four years should be a maximum period for any Uefa exco member to serve. We have recently implemented governance changes of our own and think it’s important that we are consistent in our approach.”