ZURICH, Switzerland – UEFA opened criminal legal proceedings against FIFA and its president, Gianni Infantino, on August 27, 2026, over a scrapped plan to sell stakes in commercial rights to private investors.
Documents seen by BBC Sport on August 27, 2026, showed that UEFA applied for access to evidence and documents for use in legal proceedings in Switzerland. Okay News reports that UEFA filed the application following an announcement by Infantino on July 28, 2026, to place the commercial rights to the men’s and women’s World Cup and the Club World Cup into a new subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise.
According to the legal application, the proposal was announced without prior consultation with governing bodies or member associations. The application stated: “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.”
The filing further alleged that the announcement was the public unveiling of a secretly developed plan. The application said: “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 yeThe proposed investment structure has since been scrapped, but the legal action remains active in Switzerland, where FIFA is headquartered. UEFA is seeking access to documents and other evidence that it believes could be relevant to the proceedings.
