FIFA and its president, Gianni Infantino, are facing criminal proceedings before the UEFA over a now-scrapped plan to sell stakes in the commercial rights to the World Cup and other FIFA competitions to private investors.
The UEFA had applied for access to evidence and documents for use in the proceedings in Switzerland against FIFA and Infantino.
The case is sequel to Infantino’s announcement on July 28, 2026, of plans to place the commercial rights to the men’s and women’s World Cups and the Club World Cup into a new FIFA subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise.
The documents showed that the plan was announced without consultation with the FIFA Council, UEFA, other confederations or any of FIFA’s 211 member associations.
According to the application, “on July 28, 2026, without consulting the FIFA Council, UEFA, or any of the other confederations, or any of the 211 FIFA member associations, Infantino, purportedly acting on behalf of FIFA, publicly announced a plan to place the commercial rights to the men’s and women’s World Cups and the Club World Cup into a new subsidiary: FIFA Forward Enterprise.”
The European football governing body “the announcement by Infantino was the public unveiling of a plan that he and a small circle of co-conspirators had conceived and reportedly been developing in secret for more than a year.” The
According to the plan, the investment structure has since been scrapped, but UEFA’s legal action could intensify scrutiny of FIFA’s governance and the management of the commercial rights to its major competitions.
UEFA wants the documents and other evidence that it believes could be relevant to the proceedings against FIFA and Infantino.
