UEFA is seeking to launch criminal legal proceedings in Switzerland against FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino over a shelved proposal to sell stakes in the commercial rights to the World Cup and other FIFA competitions to private investors.
Documents seen by BBC Sport show that European football’s governing body has applied for access to evidence and documents it says could be used in proceedings against both FIFA and Infantino.
The application concerns a plan to transfer the commercial rights to the men’s and women’s World Cups, as well as the Club World Cup, into a new FIFA subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE).
According to the documents, UEFA claims the proposal was announced publicly by Infantino without consultation with the FIFA Council, UEFA, the other confederations or any of FIFA’s 211 member associations.
The application 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.”
The legal move relates to the now-abandoned proposal, which would have involved private investors taking stakes in the commercial rights to FIFA’s major competitions.
UEFA’s application is directed at both the organisation and its president. It requests access to material that could support criminal proceedings in Switzerland, although the documents seen by BBC Sport do not set out the eventual scope or outcome of any such case.
The plan covered some of the most valuable assets in international football, including the men’s and women’s World Cups and the Club World Cup. The proposed vehicle for those rights was FIFA Forward Enterprise.
The documents allege that the initiative had been developed in secret for more than a year by Infantino and a small group of people described in the application as “co-conspirators”. They also state that Infantino’s public announcement represented the first disclosure of the plan.
UEFA’s position, as set out in the application, is that the proposal was advanced without the involvement of FIFA’s governing council or the wider group of football authorities and member associations listed in the filing.
The proceedings being pursued by UEFA therefore focus on how the plan was developed and announced, as well as on the proposed transfer of commercial rights to the new subsidiary.
