UEFA Seeks Criminal Case over Scrapped FIFA World Cup Sell-Off

UEFA is seeking access to evidence in the United States as it prepares possible criminal proceedings in Switzerland against FIFA president Gianni Infantino over a scrapped plan to sell private investors stakes in football’s biggest competitions. The European governing body accuses Infantino of criminal mismanagement and says other FIFA officials and advisers could also face action.

The proposed structure, known as FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), would have placed commercial rights linked to the men’s and women’s World Cups and the Club World Cup into a new FIFA subsidiary. Infantino publicly announced the plan on July 28, 2026, according to UEFA’s court application. The proposal was abandoned earlier this month after intense opposition, but UEFA is continuing to investigate how it was developed and approved.

UEFA alleges that the plan had been developed secretly for more than a year by Infantino and a small group around him. It says the proposal was pushed through FIFA’s internal approval process at a hastily arranged meeting, held only days before the public announcement. A limited number of FIFA managers and employees were reportedly given only a few hours to approve what UEFA described as an unprecedented multibillion-dollar transaction, with some allegedly unaware of the plan before the meeting.

The central dispute concerns the value and ownership structure of the proposed investment. UEFA says private investors would have received a permanent financial interest in FIFA’s commercial arm for $4.2bn. It argues that this implied an enterprise value of about $20bn, a figure that was not established through an open auction or independently tested by a professional valuer. UEFA describes the proposed price as substantially below market value and alleges that the arrangement could have benefited Infantino and the investors at the expense of FIFA and its members.

The plan would have affected all 211 FIFA member associations, including UEFA’s 55 national associations. UEFA says those members were not consulted, along with the FIFA Council, the other continental confederations or other key football stakeholders. It claims the transaction risked harming FIFA’s reputation, its authority over the game and its commercial relationships, while weakening the ability of member associations to influence the organisation’s most valuable assets.

The first evidence request has been filed in Florida, where two FIFA businesses involved in delivering the 2026 World Cup are based. UEFA is seeking documents from FIFA Americas and FWC2026 for use in a possible Swiss criminal complaint. Separate filings are reported to have been made in New York for records linked to Thrive Capital and its founder Josh Kushner, who was identified as a potential investor, as well as JPMorgan. A third application in Colorado concerns former Formula 1 chief Greg Maffei and Bann Ventures, described in the filings as the key commercial adviser to the proposed transaction.

UEFA’s legal position is that a Swiss criminal case is reasonably contemplated and that it has standing to complain. The organisation says Swiss counsel has confirmed that a complaint for criminal mismanagement could be filed against Infantino and potentially other FIFA officials. The current applications are therefore an evidence-gathering step rather than a completed criminal prosecution. Their purpose is to obtain records that UEFA believes may support later proceedings in Switzerland.

The dispute has also become a direct challenge to FIFA’s leadership model. European football officials met in Monaco before the Champions League draw with Infantino’s status on the agenda. They unanimously mandated UEFA’s president and administration to pursue institutional, political and legal measures aimed at reforming FIFA, limiting presidential authority and restoring governance centred on the organisation rather than one individual. UEFA has led the opposition to the investment plan and says it no longer has confidence in Infantino’s leadership.

Infantino had offered FIFA’s 211 member associations $40m each if they supported the proposal to bring private investment into FIFA’s tournaments. The offer added a financial incentive to a debate that already involved control of the World Cup’s commercial future. The decision to abandon FFE removed the immediate threat of the sell-off, but it did not resolve questions about the plan’s valuation, approval process, financing or proposed beneficiaries.

The next stage depends on the American courts and the documents they release. UEFA is seeking material from the companies, financial interests and advisers connected to FFE before deciding how broadly to pursue criminal complaints. It has stated that action could extend beyond Infantino to other FIFA officials and advisers. Until those applications produce further evidence, the allegations remain contested claims, while the abandoned plan continues to test the limits of FIFA’s presidential power and the safeguards around its most valuable competitions.