Uefa Files Criminal Complaint Against Gianni Infantino

Uefa is preparing to take the unprecedented step of filing a criminal complaint against Gianni Infantino, accusing the Fifa president of “criminal mismanagement” over his ill‑fated Fifa Forward Enterprise project.

What began as a boardroom battle over a controversial commercial plan has now lurched towards a full‑blown legal war at the very top of the game.

Uefa moves to arm itself in US courts

Uefa has lodged applications in the United States seeking access to documents and information, including material held by Fifa, as it builds its case. The European governing body is using a so‑called “section 1782” order, a powerful legal tool that allows parties involved in foreign legal proceedings to obtain discovery from entities based in the US.

In its filings, Uefa makes clear that it and other interested parties 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”.

The move drags the long‑running political feud between Zurich and Nyon into a new arena: Swiss criminal law, with US courts now being asked to help open the books.

Focus on a $4.2bn deal and a $20bn valuation

At the heart of the dispute lies Infantino’s abandoned scheme to sell a 20% stake in a new commercial entity bundling Fifa competitions for $4.2bn. The court papers highlight what Uefa describes as the “absurdly low enterprise value of only approximately $20bn” implied by that proposal.

According to the filings, that valuation was “neither the product of an open, competitive auction, nor tested by any independent valuer”. In other words, Uefa is arguing that the world’s most powerful football body was prepared to part with a significant slice of its future for a price that had not been properly challenged or independently checked.

For an organisation that controls the World Cup and a raft of global tournaments, the numbers, Uefa suggests, simply did not add up.

Preservation orders and a growing cast of names

The legal pressure has been building. Earlier this month, Uefa’s lawyers wrote to Infantino and Fifa demanding they “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”.

The letter did not stop at generalities. It listed 14 executives and ordered that they “specifically preserve all such materials in their possession, custody, or control”. Emails, contracts, internal memos, presentations – anything tied to the conception and negotiation of the Fifa Forward Enterprise plan is now being treated as potential evidence.

That preservation demand is a clear signal: Uefa expects a courtroom fight and wants no room for claims that crucial files vanished along the way.

Fifa has been contacted for comment.