UEFA prepares criminal complaint against Gianni Infantino: failed $4.2 billion plan grows into the biggest crisis of his tenure
Pressure on FIFA president Gianni Infantino has risen sharply after UEFA initiated legal steps in the United States to gather documentation for a possible criminal complaint in Switzerland over the failed FIFA Forward Enterprise project. According to court filings published by the Associated Press, the European football confederation is considering proceedings against Infantino and possible other FIFA officials or advisers on suspicion of criminal mismanagement under Article 158 of the Swiss Criminal Code. UEFA is not currently claiming that a criminal offence has been proven, nor is it known whether Swiss prosecutors will open an investigation, but the very fact that preparations for a complaint have moved from political statements to formal court requests marks a new level of conflict within world football. As of August 29, FIFA had not publicly responded to the latest allegations in the US filings, and AP reported that the organisation had been contacted for comment. Thrive Capital, the investment firm linked to the planned investment, declined to comment on the case.
The FIFA Forward Enterprise project, abbreviated as FFE, was conceived as a new commercial structure into which FIFA would transfer some of its most valuable business activities related to competitions. According to FIFA's official presentation in July, the new company was supposed to combine commercial rights, including television rights, sponsorships, tickets and licensing, with the operational management of tournaments. FIFA intended to raise up to $4.2 billion in external capital, with an initial valuation of FFE of around $20 billion. Media and court documents state that an investment group led by the Thrive Eternal vehicle, linked to investor Joshua Kushner, was expected to receive an approximately 20-percent minority stake. Kushner is the founder of Thrive Capital and the brother of Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, which further heightened the political and reputational sensitivity of the entire project.
UEFA seeks documents through courts in New York and Florida
According to documents reviewed by AP, UEFA filed a request on August 27 with a federal court in Manhattan to obtain potential evidence from Thrive Capital Management and Joshua Kushner. At the same time, judicial authorisation was requested in the Southern District of Florida to obtain documents from FIFA, which has an office in the Miami suburb of Coral Gables. Such requests do not mean that a US court has established any liability; their purpose is to allow access to materials that could be used in possible foreign proceedings. UEFA states in the filings that it wants to determine how FFE was conceived, who participated in the negotiations, how the value of the new company was determined and whether procedures within FIFA were followed.
The most serious allegations concern the way the project's value was determined and the question of whether the FIFA president exceeded his authority. According to AP and other reports citing UEFA's filings, the European confederation claims that the approximately $20 billion valuation did not result from an open bidding process and was not verified by an independent valuation. UEFA also claims that Infantino and a narrow circle of associates developed the project without sufficiently early involvement of the FIFA Council, the confederations and the 211 national associations. FIFA, on the other hand, claimed in its official presentation of FFE that the project was only at the consultation stage, that external investors would hold minority and non-controlling stakes and that final implementation would depend on the support of a majority of members and the necessary approvals from the FIFA Council. It is precisely the difference between that official position and UEFA's interpretation of the process that is now at the centre of the legal and institutional dispute.
UEFA's lawyers go further in the US filings, claiming that there was a possibility that private investors could acquire a permanent financial interest in the commercial structure that manages FIFA's most valuable rights. In their view, such a transaction could be harmful to FIFA and its members if assets were sold below market value. For now, this is a claim by one party to the dispute, not a fact established by a court. It has not been announced that Infantino has been indicted, nor that Swiss prosecutors have decided to initiate criminal proceedings. At this stage, the matter concerns preparation of a possible complaint and the gathering of evidence.
The plan was supposed to bring billions for development, but it raised the issue of control over rights
In July, FIFA presented FFE as a way to significantly increase investment in football development. According to the organisation's official announcement, capital raised from external investors was supposed to support a new development programme, with the possibility for each of the 211 members to gain access to a one-time amount of up to $20 million for stadiums, training centres and other long-term projects. On July 30, Infantino told members that the new structure could enable greater financing of national associations over the next development periods, arguing that stronger commercialisation of FIFA competitions should increase the funds returned to football.
Opponents of the project argued, however, that the key problem was not only the size of the stake but the permanent opening of FIFA's fundamental commercial rights to private capital. From the outset, UEFA warned that rights connected with the World Cup and other competitions could not be regarded as assets that the president or a narrow management group could dispose of without a broad institutional mandate. In the latest statement by European football leaders, published on August 27 after a meeting in Monaco, the attempt to sell an interest in the World Cup was described as a serious failure of judgement and an abuse of presidential power. UEFA stressed that abandoning FFE had not resolved the issues of trust, transparency and accountability raised by the entire case.
FIFA withdrew the project after only a few days of intense international reaction. The president's official statement was published late on July 31, and the withdrawal was confirmed as final on August 1. Infantino said at the time that the project was intended to strengthen FIFA members and football development, but that it had become clear that it had created divisions that were no longer in the interest of the original objective. He added that he intended to bring the interested parties together again and continue working to increase investment in football. That decision halted the transaction itself, but it did not stop the political consequences or demands to establish how the project originated and who made the key decisions.
Crisis of confidence spreads beyond UEFA
Opposition to Infantino is no longer limited to UEFA's leadership. Six Nordic football associations - Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the Faroe Islands - jointly announced on August 23 that they had lost confidence in the FIFA president. According to their statement, the associations have serious concerns regarding the organisation's governance and decision-making at the highest level. They supported a call for a fully independent external investigation into the circumstances surrounding FIFA Forward Enterprise and requested a broader independent review of FIFA's governance system, including control mechanisms, transparency and accountability.
The Norwegian Football Federation went one step further. Its president Lise Klaveness announced in early August that Norway would demand Infantino's immediate resignation, making it the first FIFA member to explicitly call for his departure. Klaveness said that trust had been lost and that she saw no way back to a normal relationship with the current leadership. The move carried political weight beyond Norway itself because it came at a time when numerous European federations had begun reconsidering their previously expressed support for Infantino's new candidacy.
The Italian Football Federation FIGC officially announced on August 26 that it was withdrawing its support for Infantino's candidacy for FIFA president in the 2027 election. FIGC linked its decision to the need for a governance model based on dialogue, shared responsibility, sustainability and protection of football's fundamental interests. Other associations in Europe have also withdrawn or questioned their earlier political support in recent weeks, while leading confederations outside Europe, including the AFC and CONCACAF, have publicly expressed concern about the way the FFE project was presented and managed. At the same time, Infantino still has the support of some associations in Africa, South America and the Caribbean, meaning that the balance of power within FIFA is not clear-cut.
On August 27, UEFA temporarily suspended its earlier threat to withdraw European national teams from FIFA competitions in the upcoming season, but made clear that the underlying dispute was not over. The European body said it would keep the decision on participation under constant review and could change it if circumstances deteriorated again. In the same statement, UEFA said that if the current president continued his candidacy, it would work together with partner confederations to ensure that members were offered a credible alternative.
The 2027 election is no longer a formality
On May 1, at the 76th FIFA Congress in Vancouver, Infantino officially announced that he would run again for president. FIFA subsequently confirmed that the presidential election would be held on March 18, 2027, at the 77th Congress in Rabat, Morocco. Before the FFE crisis, a new term for him was considered highly likely, and there was no confirmed rival candidate in public with a comparable global support network. However, the withdrawal of support by individual national associations and UEFA's open call for an alternative candidacy now make the election race significantly more uncertain.
The deadline for candidate nominations expires on November 18, 2026, according to information cited by AP. That leaves less than three months for political realignment, finding a candidate and securing the necessary support among members. UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin has publicly said that he does not intend to run for FIFA president himself, but believes that if Infantino remains in the race, he should face a challenger. So far, it has not been confirmed who that might be.
Infantino shows no sign that he plans to step down. After the withdrawal of FFE, he continued carrying out his presidential duties and travelling to FIFA events, and on August 5, after a leadership meeting in Rabat, FIFA announced that senior members of the administration had again expressed support for the president. In that statement, the organisation acknowledged that processes, communication and relations among the president, the secretary general and the administration could be improved, but it did not accept the claim that Infantino had lost his mandate to lead the organisation. This shows that the political crisis is unfolding simultaneously on two levels: among national associations and confederations, where support is eroding, and within FIFA's executive structure, where the president still retains institutional backing.
Legal proceedings could prove more important than the failed deal itself
UEFA's latest move changes the nature of the entire affair because the focus is no longer only on whether FFE was a good or bad business plan. Potential criminal proceedings in Switzerland would raise questions of fiduciary responsibility, the method of valuing FIFA's assets, the president's powers and any possible interests of individuals involved in the negotiations. UEFA is seeking, specifically through the US system for obtaining evidence, to secure materials that could show how decisions were made and what communication took place with private investors. Until such documents are available and Swiss authorities decide whether there are grounds for an investigation, it is not possible to draw conclusions in advance about the criminal liability of any person.
The case is also a test of the governance reforms FIFA introduced after the corruption crisis of the previous decade. Infantino was elected to lead the organisation in 2016 after a period of deep reputational damage under his predecessor Sepp Blatter, and one of the central objectives of the new era was to restore trust in the transparency of decision-making. That is precisely why the current allegations have such a strong political impact: opponents claim that FFE demonstrated excessive concentration of power in the presidential office, while FIFA maintains that it was a proposal that would never have been implemented without the democratic support of the membership and institutional approvals.
The financial background further intensifies the debate. According to AP, after the record 2023-2026 commercial cycle and the World Cup in North America, FIFA expects around $5 billion in cash reserves, with revenues of approximately $15 billion over the four-year cycle. UEFA therefore publicly raises the question of why external capital was needed at all to increase development spending. FIFA, for its part, argued that FFE would enable significantly faster and larger long-term investment in infrastructure, women's football, young players and the development of national associations than is possible through existing programmes. The dispute therefore is not merely about the valuation of one company, but about the fundamental question of how far a global sports body may go in linking its commercial rights with private capital.
As of August 29, 2026, several key questions remain open: whether US courts will approve all of UEFA's requests for documentation, whether the materials gathered will lead to a formal criminal complaint in Switzerland and whether Swiss prosecutors will then open an investigation. It is equally uncertain how many national associations will withdraw their earlier support for Infantino by autumn and whether a serious rival candidate will emerge before the November 18 deadline. What is already clear is that FIFA Forward Enterprise is no longer merely a failed commercial project. It has become the central issue in the struggle over FIFA's future governance model and potentially the biggest political and legal crisis of Infantino's decade-long presidency.
Sources:
- Associated Press - report on UEFA's court requests in New York and Florida, a possible criminal complaint in Switzerland and details of FFE (link)
- UEFA - official statement by European football leaders of August 27 on the crisis at FIFA, confidence in the leadership and the temporary suspension of the threat to withdraw from competitions (link)
- FIFA - official description of the FIFA Forward Enterprise model, the planned raising of up to $4.2 billion and the intended use of the funds for football development (link)
- FIFA - statement by Gianni Infantino on the withdrawal of the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal following opposition from members and confederations (link)
- FIFA - official confirmation of the date of the 77th FIFA Congress and the presidential election on March 18, 2027, in Rabat (link)
- Italian Football Federation FIGC - official announcement on withdrawing support for Infantino's candidacy for FIFA president (link)
- Associated Press - report on the joint statement by six Nordic associations and their loss of confidence in Infantino's leadership (link)
- FIFA - statement following the leadership meeting in Rabat on August 5 on the administration's support for Infantino and the need to improve processes after the withdrawal of FFE (link)