Aleksander Ceferin demands that plans to allow him a FOURTH term as UEFA president are voted on alongside other rule changes... as he seeks to stifle discussion amid ambitions to stay in power until 2031

Aleksander Ceferin will demand that plans to permit him a fourth term as president are voted on at the same time as other mundane regulation changes, in order to ensure that the controversial proposal avoids rigorous discussion and scrutiny at next year’s UEFA Congress.

Mail Sport revealed yesterday that Ceferin is seeking to alter UEFA statutes so that his initial three years in power after succeeding Michel Platini in 2016 do not count towards his three-term limit in office, which would enable him to remain as president until 2031.

The shock proposal sparked a backlash at last weekend’s UEFA Executive Committee in Hamburg, with former Manchester United chief executive David Gill understood to have led the opposition in a heated exchange with Ceferin.

The president’s response is understood to have been to seek to stifle discussion of the matter by proposing that the voting on the issue is bundled together with votes on around 20 other minor regulation amendments at the next UEFA Congress, which will be held in Paris on 8 February.

A two-thirds majority of UEFA’s 55 member associations is required to introduce the rule change, with 19 votes against the proposal needed to block it.

Aleksander Ceferin will demand that plans allow him a fourth term as president are voted on alongside minor regulation changes in order to avoid scrutiny

UEFA is now in a state of civil war amid a plot to allow Ceferin to remain in power until 2031

By bundling all the votes together Ceferin would effectively guarantee that the key statute change is passed, as the others are small matters which will be rubberstamped at Congress.

As Mail Sport detailed yesterday Ceferin’s plans have divided UEFA with many accusing the Slovenian lawyer of a power-grab similar to that carried out last year by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who altered the world governing body’s rules so he can stay in office for 15 years.

One source told Mail Sport that the plans are undemocratic and were a terrible look for UEFA.