FA votes against UEFA rule change allowing Aleksander Ceferin extra 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.

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.

Explaining the vote, an FA spokeswoman said: "We were supportive of the statute changes proposed by UEFA, with the exception of one - the proposed new wording on term limits for Article 69.3.

"On Article 69.3, 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.

"We requested and voted for the statute changes to be tabled separately, but this was not supported by a sufficient majority and we respect that. We support all