European football's governing body, UEFA, has threatened FIFA with legal action over FIFA President Gianni Infantino's abandoned plan to sell a stake in future World Cup profits to private investors. UEFA's lawyers have informed FIFA that the European body is "actively considering legal action, arbitration, and/or regulatory complaints" arising from the proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan. This comes after Infantino's secretive $4.2 billion proposal, which reportedly involved investors including Joshua Kushner's New York investment firm, was dropped due to global furore.
UEFA, which had led the backlash, saw its 55 member federations agree to boycott all FIFA events and competitions while the proposal was active. The legal notice from UEFA also serves as a "preservation letter" or "litigation hold letter," formally putting FIFA on notice that any destruction, deletion, alteration, concealment, or loss of relevant materials could be considered spoliation of evidence. The letter specifically named 18 FIFA executives, including Infantino, chief finance officer Thomas Peyer, and Arsène Wenger, head of global football development, who should retain data, documents, and electronic messages.
UEFA is demanding the preservation of a wide range of documents, including emails, instant messages (WhatsApp, Signal, Teams, Slack), SMS, written correspondence, and meeting notes, involving any FIFA officer, employee, committee member, consultant, agent, or any FIFA member association, confederation, broadcaster, sponsor, or financial institution. They also requested documents related to the payment structure for FIFA member associations, particularly the $20 million one-off payments Infantino had offered to each of the 211 member federations if they backed his proposal, with a mid-September deadline.
UEFA Vice-President Laura McAllister described the situation as "a very clear call for action really for what's been an abysmal governance process leading up to the FFE initiative" and emphasized the need for accountability. The threat of legal action and "non co-operation" with FIFA if Infantino remains in power is seen as a tactic to increase pressure on him, though Infantino reportedly retains significant support in South America and Africa. UEFA hopes to persuade other confederations, particularly in Asia, to join their revolt against Infantino.
