UEFA Threatens Legal Action Over Infantino’s Dropped FIFA Investment Plan

UEFA has threatened legal action against FIFA after Gianni Infantino abandoned plans to sell minority stakes in the governing body’s major competitions to private investors.

The dispute marks a fresh setback for Infantino, whose leadership has already come under scrutiny from football authorities in Europe, North and Central America, and the Caribbean.

The English Football Association is also expected to write to the FIFA president to withdraw its previous support for the proposal, while Wales has become the first national association to publicly back away from Infantino’s bid for another term as FIFA president.

Naija News reports that the plan would have seen FIFA establish a commercial subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), to manage its flagship competitions, including the World Cup. Outside investors would have been allowed to acquire minority, non-controlling stakes in the new company.

According to The Telegraph, UEFA has informed Infantino that it “is actively considering legal action, arbitration, and/or regulatory complaints (together, the ‘proceedings’) arising out of and in connection with the FFE plan proposed by FIFA”.

The European governing body also demanded that FIFA preserve all relevant records linked to the proposal.

It said it wanted “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.

“These obligations arise independently of any internal retention policy you or your organisation maintain and supersede any routine document destruction or deletion policies that would otherwise apply.”

Infantino had earlier written to all 211 FIFA member associations, promising each federation 40 million dollars if they supported the proposal. The letter also set a 19 September deadline for associations seeking an initial payment of 20 million dollars.

American venture capital firm Thrive Eternal, founded by Joshua Kushner, was expected to lead the proposed investor group behind FFE.

UEFA’s preservation request covers emails, instant messages, SMS, written correspondence, meeting notes and communications involving FIFA officials, member associations, broadcasters, sponsors and financial institutions.

The organisation also requested that documents linked to the payment structure offered to FIFA member associations, including its legal basis, modelling, approval process and communications, be retained.

UEFA has asked Infantino to acknowledge receipt of its letter within five business days and confirm that all relevant materials have been preserved.