Uefa Files Criminal Complaint Against Infantino Over Fifa Project
Uefa has taken the extraordinary step of preparing a criminal complaint against Gianni Infantino, accusing the Fifa president of alleged “criminal mismanagement” over his abandoned Fifa Forward Enterprise project.
What began as a controversial commercial idea has now erupted into a legal confrontation at the top of world football.
Legal war at the summit of the game
In court filings in the United States, Uefa and other unnamed interested parties set out their intention to pursue Infantino, and potentially other Fifa officials and advisers, under Article 158 of the Swiss Criminal Code – the provision that covers criminal mismanagement.
They are not just signalling. They are gathering ammunition.
Using a “section 1782” application – a powerful US legal tool that allows parties involved in foreign proceedings to obtain discovery from entities based in America – Uefa has asked for extensive documentation relating to the conception and structure of Infantino’s plan.
The move drags the commercial machinery behind global football tournaments into the harsh light of a courtroom, with Uefa effectively questioning whether the head of the sport’s world governing body properly protected Fifa’s assets.
The $20bn question
At the heart of Uefa’s challenge lies the valuation of Infantino’s proposed deal.
Court documents highlight what they call an “absurdly low enterprise value of only approximately $20bn” implied by the scheme, which envisaged selling a 20% stake in a package of Fifa tournaments for $4.2bn.
For an organisation that controls the World Cup and a suite of global competitions, that number has set alarm bells ringing in Europe.
The filings state that the $20bn figure was “neither the product of an open, competitive auction, nor tested by any independent valuer”. In other words, Uefa is accusing the project of being built on a price that was never properly challenged, never exposed to the market, and never subjected to neutral scrutiny.
Those are heavy claims when directed at the sitting president of Fifa.
Preservation orders and a widening net
The legal offensive did not start with the US application. Earlier this month, Uefa’s lawyers wrote directly to Infantino and Fifa, demanding they secure all relevant material.
The instruction was blunt. Infantino and Fifa were told to “take immediate steps to identify, locate, and preserve all documents and electronically stored information described in this notice that are in your or Fifa’s possession, custody, or control”.
No room for ambiguity. No room for deletion.
The letter went further, naming 14 executives who were specifically ordered to preserve all such materials in their possession. That list signals how wide Uefa believes responsibility, or at least involvement, may run inside Fifa’s leadership and advisory circles.
Emails, contracts, presentations, internal memos – all of it is now potentially evidence in a looming Swiss criminal case.
From boardroom plan to criminal arena
Infantino’s Fifa Forward Enterprise proposal has long been contentious, framed by critics as a vehicle to part-privatise Fifa’s future revenues by selling a minority stake in its competitions to external investors.
Now, that boardroom vision is being recast as a possible breach of criminal law, with Uefa questioning whether the deal would have short-changed the organisation that runs the world game.
For Uefa, the argument cuts to the core of governance: did the Fifa president attempt to push through a multibillion-dollar transaction on terms that failed to safeguard Fifa’s true commercial value?
The answer may soon be tested not in a congress hall, but in a Swiss courtroom.
Fifa was contacted for comment.
