Uefa has taken its most aggressive step yet in its power struggle with Fifa, preparing a criminal complaint against Gianni Infantino over alleged “criminal mismanagement” linked to his collapsed Fifa Forward Enterprise project.
The European governing body has launched legal moves in the United States to secure documents tied to the scheme, which proposed selling a 20% stake in a bundle of Fifa tournaments for $4.2bn. That valuation, Uefa’s filing notes, implied an “absurdly low enterprise value of only approximately $20bn” for Fifa’s competitions.
Legal war goes transatlantic
Uefa and other unnamed interested parties have confirmed in US court papers that they are “preparing to bring criminal claims in Switzerland against Infantino and possible other Fifa officials and advisors for criminal mismanagement under Article 158 of the Swiss Criminal Code”.
To build that case, Uefa has turned to a powerful US legal tool: a “section 1782” application. It allows a party involved in, or preparing for, foreign legal proceedings to seek discovery from individuals or organisations based in the United States. In this instance, Uefa is asking for information, including from Fifa itself, about how the Fifa Forward Enterprise plan was conceived, valued and advanced.
The court documents underline Uefa’s central contention: that the $4.2bn offer for a 20% slice of Fifa tournaments was “neither the product of an open, competitive auction, nor tested by any independent valuer”. For an organisation whose competitions underpin the global game’s economy, that figure is portrayed as not just low, but dangerously so.
Preservation orders and a widening net
The legal pressure has been building. Earlier this month, Uefa’s lawyers wrote to Infantino and Fifa ordering them 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”.
That instruction was not vague. Fourteen executives were specifically named and told to preserve all relevant material they hold, whether on official systems or personal devices. The message was clear: nothing is to disappear, nothing is to be deleted.
For Uefa, the dispute goes far beyond one abandoned commercial project. It strikes at who gets to decide the financial future of the world’s most powerful sports body, and on what terms.
Fifa was contacted for comment.
