UEFA files for discovery in Colorado, Florida and New York courts as it builds criminal case against Infantino

August 28 – UEFA has taken the first legal steps of bringing a criminal complaint against FIFA president Gianni Infantino, and potentially other FIFA executives, over its plan to sell off World Cup commercial rights.

An application for an order to obtain discovery of information from FIFA (Americas) and FWC2026 US has been filed in the District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

UEFA has also filed documents in a Manhattan court requesting discovery of potential evidence from private equity fund, Thrive Capital Management, which has direct links to US president Donald Trump. Thrive was founded by Josh Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

In a third filing, UEFA has filed for discovery in Denver, Colorado, the location of Greg Maffei, CEO of BANN Ventures and formerly President and CEO of Liberty Media, who was retained as Infantino’s “key commercial adviser” on the FFE transaction.

In early August UEFA had written to FIFA saying “it is actively considering legal action, arbitration, and/or regulatory complaints arising out of and in connection with the FFE plan proposed by Fifa”.

It demanded “immediate steps to identify, locate and preserve all documents and electronically stored information described in this notice that are in your or Fifa possession, custody or control.”

The two court filings are the next step in the process with UEFA saying that it would file its criminal complaint in Switzerland, where FIFA is headquartered.

The Florida filing says that the announcement of the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE)“was the public unveiling of a plan that he (Infantino) and a small circle of co-conspirators had conceived and reportedly been developing in secret for more than a year. Infantino claimed that the plan would “unleash the commercial potential and opportunity that FIFA has.” In truth, it was a vehicle for Infantino and that small circle to acquire a permanent stake in and otherwise profit from FIFA’s most valuable assets to the detriment of FIFA, its members, and other parties within the football family.”

The filing goes on to state: “The valuation, governance, and deal-structuring records held by FIFA Americas and FWC2026 are directly probative of whether the $4.2 billion price reflected an arm’s-length valuation of FIFA’s commercial rights or, as the public record indicates, a fraudulently off-market price promoted by Infantino for his own benefit.”

The filing references the Article 158 of the Swiss Criminal Code concerning which covers “[a]ny person … entrusted with the management of the property of another”.

Should any failure in that duty “causes or permits” the other person to sustain financial loss then the perpetrator (in this case Infantino) “shall be liable to a custodial sentence not exceeding three years or to a monetary penalty […] If the offender acts with the intention of securing an unlawful gain for themselves or another, a custodial sentence not exceeding five years or to monetary penalty shall be imposed.”

Infantino of course was forced to withdraw the FFE plan before the loss was incurred, though that doesn’t exclude him from charges of attempting to defraud FIFA and its member associations.

The filing argues that the sale of 21% FIFA’s commercial arm for $4.2 billion represents “an absurdly low enterprise value of only approximately $20 billion” for the sale of the rights to FFE.

If granted, the filing forces Infantino to disclose information he has previously refused to share with FIFA member associations or the FIFA Council.

For the FIFA Council members an independent review of the FFE proposal is rapidly becoming a priority, not least because they need to be seen as being non-complicit with a potential criminal activity. For those that were around during the harrowing days of 2015, that is a place those most dependent on FIFA grant money don’t want to return to.

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