Meknes – UEFA is preparing to file a criminal complaint against FIFA President Gianni Infantino, accusing him of mismanagement over a failed plan to sell a portion of FIFA’s tournament rights.
In a major legal escalation between football’s top governing bodies, UEFA has filed requests in US courts to obtain documents and information directly from FIFA and American investment firm Thrive Capital.
According to The Guardian, UEFA and its partners are preparing to launch criminal proceedings in Switzerland against Infantino and potentially other FIFA officials and advisers, charging them with criminal mismanagement under Article 158 of the Swiss Criminal Code.
To secure the relevant documents, UEFA filed a “Section 1782” discovery request in the United States against Thrive Capital. This legal mechanism allows foreign entities to obtain evidence and information from US-based companies for use in overseas court proceedings.
The court filings focus heavily on what UEFA calls an “absurdly low” $20 billion valuation for FIFA’s commercial rights.
Under Infantino’s proposal, selling a 20% stake for $4.2 billion set the organization’s worth far below its true value, a figure the lawsuit claims was set without an open bidding process or an independent appraisal.
UEFA argues that FIFA’s actual market value easily exceeds $30 billion based on its financial performance and current market conditions.
The filing contrasts the current valuation with a dropped 2018 proposal from a SoftBank-led consortium, which would have guaranteed $25 billion over 12 years for rights to the Nations League and an expanded Club World Cup.
The legal filings accuse Infantino of a severe failure of leadership for bypassing the FIFA Council when pushing the deal.
The documents detailed how member associations were rushed into approving the proposal, backed by a promised $40 million financial incentive to secure their support before the project was ultimately dropped.
In a detailed 56-page filing which includes a section dedicated to FIFA’s long history of corruption, UEFA’s lawyers labeled the proposed scheme a personal cash grab.
They argued the deal was designed to let Infantino and an inner circle profit directly from FIFA’s most valuable assets at the expense of the global football community.
With legal filings underway and opposition mounting, UEFA’s aggressive push marks an unprecedented escalation in its ongoing battle with FIFA.
By pursuing criminal accountability alongside a united political challenge, European football’s governing body has signaled that it will settle for nothing short of total institutional reform at the top of the global game.
