European football's governing body Uefa has intensified its campaign against Fifa president Gianni Infantino, announcing plans to file a criminal complaint against him in Switzerland over allegations of "criminal mismanagement" tied to a failed World Cup asset sale.
The announcement came on a day meant to celebrate the sport, as club and federation executives gathered in Monte Carlo for the Champions League draw. Instead, attention shifted to Uefa's dramatic legal maneuver, which arrived just after the organization quietly dropped a threatened boycott of Fifa competitions, allowing European teams to compete in next month's Under-20 Women's World Cup and the Women's World Cup qualifiers in October.
Rather than signaling a retreat, the reversal appears to be part of a broader strategy. Uefa is now seeking to obtain documents through American courts related to the abandoned Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan, a scheme that would have sold 21% of Fifa's future revenues in perpetuity to Joshua Kushner's Thrive Capital for $4.2 billion. In a 56-page filing submitted to courts in New York, Florida, and Colorado, Uefa described the deal's valuation of the enterprise—roughly $20 billion—as "absurdly low."
The figure has drawn scrutiny given that Fifa generated $15 billion in revenue during the four-year cycle culminating in this summer's World Cup. Market analysts have echoed Uefa's skepticism, noting the proposed sale reportedly lacked safeguards against tournament expansion or the creation of new competitions that could further boost Fifa's earning potential.
Uefa's suspicions were reportedly deepened after Kushner, alongside former Disney executive Bob Iger, purchased the Los Angeles Lakers for $12.5 billion—a sum that led Uefa officials to conclude Thrive Capital had received favorable terms in the Fifa deal. Compounding those concerns is a belief within Uefa that Infantino was positioning himself to become chairman of FFE after eventually leaving the Fifa presidency, a role that could be worth tens of millions of pounds annually. Infantino has indicated he intends to remain Fifa president until 2031, contingent on winning another term.
Infantino's continued political activity has not gone unnoticed. He recently attended a Caribbean Football Union meeting in the Dominican Republic, where he approved several funding projects—a move that reportedly strengthened Uefa's resolve to pursue him legally.
The legal complaint represents an escalation after what Uefa describes as repeated failed attempts to obtain relevant documents directly from Fifa. Beyond the courtroom, Uefa is also working to build support among Fifa's member federations ahead of March's presidential election, in which it hopes to see Infantino removed from office.
That effort faces resistance. Sources within Uefa and its allies at Concacaf have privately admitted difficulty persuading federations outside Europe to turn against Infantino. Some associations have reportedly signaled that only concrete proof of criminal wrongdoing—or evidence that Infantino stood to personally profit from the FFE deal—would be enough to shift their support.
History offers little encouragement to those hoping for a swift change in leadership. Fifa has had only three permanent presidents in the last 52 years, and the last to be voted out of office was England's Sir Stanley Rous in 1974. His successor, João Havelange, resigned after 24 years and was later found by a Fifa ethics panel to have accepted bribes connected to media rights sales. Sepp Blatter, who followed, stepped down amid an FBI investigation in 2015 that has since produced more than 20 criminal convictions in the United States.
Given Switzerland's history of limited action against Fifa despite widespread allegations of corruption over the years, it remains uncertain whether Uefa's criminal complaint will gain traction domestically without international pressure similar to that exerted by U.S. authorities a decade ago.
Based on reporting from The Guardian.