UEFA Readies Swiss Criminal Complaint Over FIFA’s Abandoned $4.2 Billion Sale Plan, Seeks U.S. Evidence

UEFA is preparing a criminal complaint in Switzerland against FIFA president Gianni Infantino and has already gone to a Manhattan court to seek U.S. evidence tied to FIFA’s abandoned plan to sell part of its future World Cup-related commercial business, according to reporting by The Associated Press, ESPN and The Guardian on court papers.

The reports said UEFA’s lawyers told the New York court they are “contemplating a Swiss criminal proceeding” under Article 158 of the Swiss Criminal Code, an offense commonly translated as criminal mismanagement. The 56-page filing, as described by AP and ESPN, argues the proposed $4.2 billion sale price may have been a “fraudulently off-market price promoted by Infantino for his own benefit.” The allegation is from UEFA’s filing and has not been established in court. No Swiss criminal case has been opened by prosecutors.

At the center of the dispute is a FIFA plan to place its commercial events business, including the World Cup, into a new subsidiary widely reported as FIFA Forward Enterprise, or FFE, and then sell roughly 20% of that business to private investors for about $4.2 billion. Contemporaneous reporting said the proposal implied an overall valuation of about $20 billion. FIFA presented the idea as a way to raise more money for its 211 member associations and development programs.

FIFA is world soccer’s governing body and is headquartered in Zurich. UEFA, which runs European soccer, is one of FIFA’s most powerful regional confederations. That makes the fight both a governance battle inside the sport and a potentially significant Swiss criminal-law matter, because the contemplated complaint would be filed where FIFA is based.

New York is involved because UEFA is using a U.S. evidence-gathering law, 28 U.S.C. Section 1782, which allows federal courts to order testimony or documents for use in foreign proceedings. According to the reports, UEFA’s legal team filed in Manhattan to seek discovery from U.S. entities connected to the proposed investment. Press reports had identified Thrive Capital, through Thrive Eternal, as the intended anchor or lead investor. Thrive was founded by Joshua Kushner.

The legal move is the sharpest escalation yet in a dispute that had already burst into public view this month. FIFA and Infantino withdrew the investment plan on or about Aug. 1, 2026, after strong opposition from UEFA and other soccer bodies. Subsequent reports said Infantino sent apology letters to FIFA members and held crisis meetings after the backlash.

Before this latest filing, UEFA had already sent FIFA a formal evidence-preservation letter in early August through the law firm Dechert, according to reporting at the time. The letter warned against the destruction or alteration of documents and named 18 FIFA executives, including Infantino, FIFA chief financial officer Thomas Peyer and Arsène Wenger, the former Arsenal manager who now works in senior soccer development roles at FIFA.

After the plan was withdrawn, UEFA said it welcomed the retreat but declared that FIFA leadership had “lost UEFA’s confidence.” It also said it would “identify those responsible and hold them to account,” adding: “We cannot keep going on like this with secret schemes on fast track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game.”

Article 158 of the Swiss Criminal Code generally covers cases in which a person entrusted with managing another’s assets is accused of breaching duties and causing financial loss. But under Swiss procedure, a complaint by UEFA would not itself amount to charges. Any decision on whether to open criminal proceedings would rest with Swiss prosecutors, not with European soccer’s governing body.