UEFA Moves to File Criminal Complaint Against FIFA's Infantino Over Collapsed $4.2 Billion World Cup Sell-Off

UEFA has taken its fight with FIFA President Gianni Infantino to American courts, filing documents this week that lay the groundwork for a criminal complaint against him in Switzerland.

According to the Associated Press, UEFA filed papers in a Manhattan federal court seeking discovery from Thrive Capital Management, the New York investment fund founded by Joshua Kushner. UEFA also filed a separate request in a southern Florida district court seeking discovery from FIFA itself, which keeps offices in Coral Gables, Florida.

The target is a now-dead plan called FIFA Forward Enterprise. Under it, Thrive and Kushner were set to be anchor investors paying FIFA $4.2 billion for a 20% stake in a new subsidiary that would run the World Cup and other commercial events, according to the AP and Euronews.

UEFA's lawyers say that price was a joke. In a 56-page filing seen by the AP, UEFA's counsel calls the $4.2 billion figure a "fraudulently off-market price promoted by Infantino for his own benefit," and says it implied an enterprise value of roughly $20 billion for FIFA's commercial arm, a number UEFA says was never tested by any independent valuer or open auction.

UEFA says it's now "contemplating a Swiss criminal proceeding against Infantino and possibly other FIFA officials for criminal mismanagement under Article 158 of the Swiss Criminal Code," the AP reported. That's a Swiss statute covering breach of fiduciary duty, and Switzerland is where FIFA is legally headquartered, giving Swiss prosecutors jurisdiction over its top officials.

UEFA didn't spring this on FIFA overnight. The AP notes UEFA first threatened legal action on August 3, warning FIFA against destroying or hiding records tied to the plan. Infantino had already scrapped the sell-off on August 1 after what multiple outlets describe as a furious revolt from soccer's power brokers.

Breitbart's earlier coverage of the original announcement lays out how fast this fell apart. UEFA's initial public statement blasted Infantino directly: "It is not FIFA's to sell," the confederation said, adding "none of us are the owners of football." Infantino pushed back at the time, calling the plan "the democratization of football worldwide." That defense hasn't stopped the legal escalation now underway.

Three confederations, one target

This isn't just UEFA. According to Al Jazeera, the Asian Football Confederation and CONCACAF have joined UEFA in pressuring Infantino to resign, and the three bodies have discussed a formal vote of no confidence. Al Jazeera also reports FIFA's chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, left the organization after criticizing Infantino's World Cup plans, and that New Zealand has pulled its support for his re-election bid.

Infantino is up for a fourth term as FIFA president next March. He has not called a meeting of FIFA's 37-member council, according to Al Jazeera, choosing instead to meet with most of his management team in Rabat, Morocco, roughly three weeks ago.

Not everyone is turning on him. Saudi Arabia, host of the 2034 World Cup, put out a statement Thursday through its football federation backing "the continued efforts of FIFA President Gianni Infantino and FIFA's leadership to restore unity across the football family," per Al Jazeera. The Saudi federation credited Infantino's "contribution to growing the game worldwide over almost a decade" and called for direct dialogue among stakeholders. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has deep commercial ties to FIFA already, having partnered on the 2025 Club World Cup and sponsored this year's tournament.

Trump wades in

President Trump also jumped to Infantino's defense. On Truth Social, Trump wrote that "FIFA would be making a terrible mistake if, for any reason, they even considered replacing President Gianni Infantino," according to Fox News. Trump praised Infantino for what he called the most successful World Cup ever staged, arguing "if he is gone, it will never be as successful or profitable again."

Fox News's framing leans heavily on the U.S. hosting win and skips past the specific fraud allegation UEFA is making in its court filings, focusing instead on the political fight and Trump's relationship with Infantino. That's a fair thing for Trump to say about the tournament's box office, but it doesn't touch the actual legal claim: that Infantino allegedly steered FIFA's commercial rights to a hand-picked investor group at a price nobody independently verified.

No Swiss prosecutor has filed charges, no court has ruled on anything, and UEFA's 56-page document is an advocacy filing from an interested party, not a neutral finding. Infantino dropped the plan and apologized before UEFA escalated to this stage. Whether a $20 billion valuation was actually low, in line with market comps, or something in between is a genuine unresolved question. Discovery from Thrive Capital's own records could help settle it.

Spokespeople for FIFA and Thrive Capital have been approached for comment, according to the AP, and neither had responded publicly as of Thursday. The next concrete step is whether the Manhattan and Florida courts grant UEFA's discovery requests, which would hand UEFA's lawyers internal Thrive and FIFA documents ahead of any formal Swiss criminal complaint.