Background on the Proposed Plan

In an ex parte application filed under US law, European football’s governing body said it is considering criminal proceedings against Infantino and potentially other FIFA officials and advisers over a now-abandoned plan to transfer commercial rights linked to men’s and women’s World Cups and the Club World Cup into a new subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE).

“UEFA is actively considering legal action arising out of and in connection with the … plan proposed by FIFA,” read the legal document filed in a Florida court in the United States, according to the AFP news agency.

“More specifically, UEFA and other interested parties are preparing to bring criminal claims in Switzerland against Infantino and possibly other FIFA officials and advisors for criminal mismanagement under Article 158 of the Swiss Criminal Code.”

Allegations Against Infantino

UEFA alleges Infantino developed the proposal in secret with a small group of advisers and investors, bypassing FIFA’s normal governance processes and failing to consult the FIFA Council, regional confederations or member associations.

The filing asks a US court to authorise discovery from FIFA (AMERICAS), Inc. and FWC2026 US, Inc., two Florida-based FIFA entities. UEFA said the organisations may possess documents and witnesses relevant to how the FFE transaction was conceived, structured, valued and approved.

Uefa is preparing criminal legal proceedings against Fifa president Gianni Infantino over the now scrapped plan to sell off stakes in the World Cup and its other competitions to private investors. Documents seen by BBC Sport show an application has been made by European football’s governing body requesting access to evidence and documents for use in proceedings in Switzerland against the embattled president himself, who Uefa accuses of “criminal mismanagement”.

Uefa also says it is considering pursuing criminal action against other Fifa officials. Shortly after this summer’s World Cup, Infantino proposed creating a new company, Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE), which would have sold off stakes in Fifa’s football competitions to private investors.

Details of the Application

The plan was scrapped after widespread backlash. In the application for evidence, Uefa said: “In truth, it was a vehicle for Infantino and that small circle to acquire a permanent stake in and otherwise profit from Fifa’s most valuable assets to the detriment of Fifa, its members, and other parties within the football family,” Uefa’s application says.

“Infantino pushed the plan through internal Fifa approval only days earlier at a hastily convened meeting where a limited number of Fifa’s management officials and employees – some of whom had never heard of the plan – were given mere hours to sign off on an first-ever multi-billion dollar scheme.”

Key figures at Uefa and in European football met today in Monaco ahead of the Champions League draw, where Infantino’s status was one item on the agenda. A statement sent to the media by Uefa said: “Those present unanimously mandated the Uefa president and administration to pursue every available institutional, political and legal avenue necessary to secure fundamental reform, restore proper limits on presidential authority and ensure that Fifa is once again governed as an institution – not around one individual.”

What does Uefa say in its legal application? Uefa also claims that the valuation of the stakes to be sold were not independently verified and would have been offered too cheaply, calling the proposed sale “a fraudulently off-market price by Infantino for his own benefit”.

The application adds: “Under the terms Infantino announced, those investors stood to acquire a permanent financial interest in Fifa’s commercial arm for $4.2bn, implying an absurdly low enterprise value of only approximately $20bn, a figure that was neither the product of an open, competitive auction, nor tested by any independent valuer.”

In the application, Uefa is applying to a court in Florida to attempt to access files held by two Fifa businesses – Fifa Americas and FWC2026 – to be used to pursue the criminal charges in Switzerland at a later stage. The two businesses are based in Florida.

Uefa claims that its 55 member nations would have potentially been harmed by the sell-off plan, and that it may pursue further legal action against the officials involved.