UEFA is seeking to launch criminal proceedings against FIFA president Gianni Infantino over a controversial plan to sell stakes in the organisation’s biggest competitions to private investors.
The European governing body has applied to a court in Florida for access to documents and other evidence that could be used in a criminal case in Switzerland against Infantino and FIFA.
The proposed deal, which has now been abandoned, was centred on FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a new company that would have controlled the commercial rights to the men’s and women’s World Cups and the Club World Cup.
UEFA alleges that Infantino and a small group around him developed the plan in secret and that the proposed structure would have benefited private investors and Infantino at FIFA’s expense.
UEFA’S ALLEGATIONS
UEFA claims Infantino pushed the proposal through FIFA’s internal approval process shortly before it was announced. The application says a meeting was held at short notice, with only a limited number of FIFA officials and employees involved. Some of them, UEFA alleges, had not heard about the proposal before the meeting and were given only a few hours to approve it.
UEFA also claims that the FIFA Council, the continental confederations and FIFA’s 211 member associations were not consulted.
The organisation says the plan had been in development for more than a year before Infantino announced it on July 28, 2026. The proposed investment has also come under scrutiny because of its valuation. UEFA says investors would have acquired a permanent financial interest in FIFA’s commercial arm for $4.2bn.
According to the application, that price implied an enterprise value of around $20bn. UEFA argues that the valuation was never tested through an open bidding process or independently verified.
The organisation says the proposed terms could have resulted in FIFA’s commercial assets being sold too cheaply.
SWISS PROCEEDINGS
UEFA’s Florida application is aimed at obtaining evidence for potential proceedings in Switzerland.
The governing body says it and other interested parties are preparing criminal claims against Infantino and could also pursue other FIFA officials and advisers for alleged criminal mismanagement.
UEFA claims the proposed deal could have harmed FIFA and its 211 members, including UEFA’s 55 national associations. It also alleges that the way the project was structured, valued, financed and marketed damaged FIFA’s reputation and commercial relationships.
The legal action follows the collapse of the FFE plan, but UEFA is continuing to seek documents relating to how the proposal was created and approved. The allegations have been made by UEFA as part of its court application and have not been established by a criminal court.
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