UEFA officially take criminal legal action against Gianni Infantino

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FT Desk

UEFA are officially pursuing criminal legal proceedings against FIFA President Gianni Infantino over his failed FIFA Forward Enterprise proposals.

FFE was designed as a new commercial company that would manage the commercial interests of FIFA’s biggest competitions, including the men’s and women’s World Cups and the Club World Cup. FIFA valued the proposed company at approximately $20 billion and planned to sell a 20% stake to private investors, which could have raised around $4.2 billion.

Those investors would have had a say in when and where the World Cup would be held and there were concerns that more financially profitable areas like North America would be favoured in the future.

The additional revenue was intended to allow FIFA to increase its football-development distributions to more than $10 billion, potentially providing member associations with substantially greater funding.

Live latest from Monaco as UEFA prepares criminal proceedings against Infantino in Switzerland over the World Cup venture pic.twitter.com/q9P96GFd8d

— Rob Harris (@RobHarris) August 27, 2026

However, the proposal triggered a major backlash. UEFA, CONCACAF and the AFC argued that FIFA was attempting to commercialise and partially privatise the commercial rights to the World Cup without sufficient consultation or the necessary governance approval.

UEFA’s 55 member associations even agreed to consider boycotting FIFA competitions. The proposals also faced significant resistance from within FIFA itself, including from senior officials.

Under mounting pressure, Infantino withdrew the proposal on 1 August 2026, confirming that it would not proceed. FIFA has since given assurances that the FFE plans will not be brought back.

Infantino later issued a statement apologising for the lack of communication surrounding the proposals. However, he notably stopped short of apologising for the plans themselves.

BBC Sport reports that UEFA have made an application to see all evidence relating to the FFE proposals from Infantino and FIFA.

The applications reads: "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 (FFE).

"That 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."

Countries like England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Serbia, Sweden, and Finland have all publicly withdrawn their support for Infantino.

But, he has received backing from the African confederation, Argentina and today Saudi Arabia, among other nations.

Saudi Arabia are already the confirmed hosts for the 2034 World Cup.