Opinions, analysis and commentary
None of the three touted names currently clears every single bar UEFA Vice-President Laura McAllister set out this week for the sport’s next leader. Montagliani comes closest overall, fitting three of her four stated criteria comfortably. Ceferin manages two, while Al-Khelaifi struggles to clear even one convincingly given his heavy commercial ties. McAllister’s framing, delivered to Reuters on August 6, demands the sport stay above politics and commercial interest entirely, a bar that exposes real weaknesses in every single candidate currently being discussed publicly around football.
McAllister described football as belonging to everybody, from grassroots level right up to the elite professional game, stressing it should reach every corner of the world equally, in the poorest countries as much as the wealthiest ones.
She also told Deutsche Welle the sport needs a candidate capable of uniting the whole football world together, not just Europe specifically as one single region. She added that football must be run democratically at every level, never controlled by fiefdoms or by any single individual holding too much personal power.
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| Candidate | Current Role | Commercial Stance | Grassroots Record |
| Aleksander Ceferin | UEFA president since 2016 | UCL highly commercial | Strong UEFA HatTrick distributions |
| Nasser Al-Khelaifi | PSG president, ECA chairman | State-backed commercial vehicle | Limited, club-level only |
| Victor Montagliani | CONCACAF president since 2012 | Opposed WC expansion plans | Strong development focus regionally |
Ceferin led the unanimous boycott and drove the entire governance push that produced Infantino’s public apology earlier in August, a genuinely rare moment of accountability at the very top of the sport. His democratic credentials inside UEFA remain genuinely strong across the entire board, built over nearly a decade spent in the role.
The problem lies squarely in McAllister’s own framing about reaching well beyond Europe specifically as a region. Ceferin’s entire professional base sits inside European football specifically, and his very lucrative UCL commercial record complicates any argument about prioritising sport over money at FIFA level going forward into the next decade of leadership.
The comparison spans three entirely separate tests: sport placed over commercial interest, genuinely inclusive governance, and real cross-continental coalition building across every confederation involved in the process. No single candidate clears all three of those tests cleanly right now, based on the reporting currently available to journalists.
Al-Khelaifi fails most obviously on commercial independence as a criterion, since PSG’s state backing is precisely the kind of political interest McAllister’s standard explicitly rules out entirely from the very outset of this whole process. Montagliani clearly passes the commercial neutrality test most convincingly of the three names currently being floated around the corridors of world football administration, largely thanks to his clean personal record.
Al-Khelaifi’s ECA position gives him real standing inside European club football circles at the very highest level of the sport. His commercial profile remains the disqualifying factor throughout, though, since owning a state-linked club conflicts directly with the idea of governing football above commercial interest and outside political influence entirely.
Montagliani has opposed both the biennial World Cup proposal and sixty-four team expansion plans publicly and firmly on the record over the years. He represents the entire Americas region and carries no personal commercial football interest of his own to speak of at all. Canadian Prime Minister Carney has publicly praised his stronger leadership through the recent governance crisis engulfing FIFA over these past few weeks.
Montagliani fits three of McAllister’s four stated criteria once you weigh sport over commerce, democratic governance and genuine cross-continental unity together as one package. His grassroots record built through CONCACAF remains genuinely real but noticeably thinner than reaching every single corner of the world, including the poorest football nations she mentioned specifically in her remarks.
Judged fairly against the UEFA FIFA president candidate custodian sport standard McAllister laid out this month, Ceferin fits two criteria while Al-Khelaifi manages barely one convincingly at best, if that. November 18 will finally reveal whether anyone who genuinely meets that bar actually files their nomination paperwork in time before the deadline closes for good.
Who do you personally think actually ends up filing for the FIFA presidency by that November deadline this year? Share your prediction with us below.
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Who is Laura McAllister at UEFA?
She is UEFA’s Vice-President, elected unopposed back in April 2023 to the role. McAllister is the first Welsh person on the UEFA Executive Committee and a former Wales women’s captain.
Who could replace Gianni Infantino as FIFA president?
Three names are being widely discussed right now: Montagliani, Ceferin and Al-Khelaifi. No formal challenger has filed a nomination yet, with the deadline set for November 18, 2026.
When is the next FIFA presidential election?
The election takes place in March 2027 at the 77th FIFA Congress held in Rabat. Nominations for that Moroccan-hosted Congress officially close on November 18, 2026, well beforehand.
What did UEFA say about FIFA’s next leader?
McAllister called for a custodian who prioritises the whole sport over commercial interests. She specifically said football must be democratically run, never controlled by fiefdoms or individuals.
Is Aleksander Ceferin running for FIFA president?
He has not formally declared any candidacy at all as of August 2026. Yahoo Sports reported he currently prefers remaining UEFA president rather than pursuing the top FIFA role.
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