Gianni Infantino’s increasingly bitter confrontation with European football has taken a potentially much more serious turn.
UEFA are preparing a criminal complaint against the FIFA president over his aborted attempt to bring private investment into the commercial rights of the World Cup.
UEFA has applied to federal courts in the United States seeking documents and testimony which could subsequently be used in proceedings in Switzerland, where FIFA is based. Its lawyers say that UEFA and other interested parties are preparing possible claims against Infantino, and potentially other FIFA officials and advisers, for alleged criminal mismanagement under Swiss law.
The dispute concerns FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), the controversial project announced by Infantino in July. The proposal would have placed commercial rights connected with FIFA’s leading competitions, including the men’s and women’s World Cups and Club World Cup, into a new subsidiary in which private investors could acquire a stake.
Thrive Capital, the investment company founded by Joshua Kushner, was expected to become the principal outside investor, with a proposed investment of $4.2 billion for approximately 20 per cent of the business.
However, the proposal provoked fierce opposition, particularly from UEFA, and Infantino abandoned it on 1 August, only days after making it public.
That has not ended the controversy.
UEFA alleges that the scheme had been developed largely in secret and without adequate consultation with the FIFA Council, the regional confederations or FIFA’s 211 member associations. It has also questioned the valuation placed upon the proposed company, arguing that FIFA’s most valuable commercial assets could effectively have been sold too cheaply. And with no competitive tendering process involved.
UEFA is now seeking evidence from FIFA-related entities in the United States, as well as Thrive Capital, concerning how the proposal was conceived, structured, valued and approved.
The development represents a dramatic escalation in the struggle between Infantino and European football.
UEFA had previously threatened the possibility of European nations withdrawing from FIFA competitions if the private investment proposal proceeded. That threat has now been provisionally suspended after FIFA provided assurances that the plan will not be revived.
But the political battle is far from finished.
Infantino is expected to seek another term as FIFA president in March 2027, and what once appeared likely to be a relatively straightforward re-election campaign has become considerably more complicated.
For a FIFA president already facing unprecedented opposition from European football, the prospect of a criminal complaint in Switzerland potentially raises the stakes considerably further.
And he could face years of legal battles which will last long after his association with FIFA.
