UEFA is taking legal action against FIFA President Gianni Infantino and FIFA, according to documents seen by several publications. The documents reportedly request evidence which will be used in legal proceedings in Switzerland.
As reported by the BBC, the documents read:
“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 (FFE).
“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 year.”
Gianni Infantino’s problems aren’t being swept under the rug, despite UEFA deciding to no longer boycott FIFA competitions.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has had a turbulent couple of months following the 2026 World Cup, which pulled in record profits and was the organiser’s biggest tournament to date.
In July, The Times uncovered plans for FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a subsidiary that would package FIFA’s major tournament commercial rights and sell stakes to external private equity investors.
What followed has been nothing short of chaos, with the footballing world split between support for the plans and calls for Infantino to step down.
UEFA has led the opposition, threatening to boycott FIFA competitions, which would have significant implications given the next World Cup is being hosted across Portugal, Spain and Morocco.
Infantino called off the plans following backlash and has since attempted to repair relationships. Earlier this month, he posed for a picture with FIFA General Secretary Mattias Grafström, who had previously criticised FFE as a “sad and reproachable series of events.”
The pair also sent a joint letter to FIFA vice-presidents and council members reaffirming their support for one another. The letter acknowledged that “mistakes were made” in the handling of the project.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the FIFA Secretary General and the Management Board in attendance reaffirm their full support for FIFA President Gianni Infantino,” the letter stated.
UEFA easing up?
In addition to repairing relationships inside FIFA, Infantino has now received some relief from UEFA, which is reportedly set to call off its boycott of FIFA events.
The first tournament that would have been affected is the U20 Women’s World Cup in Poland, which starts on 5 September. Sources close to the matter told Insider Sport at the start of the month that there were no confirmed plans issued to Football Associations about boycotting the tournament.
Despite lifting the pressure to avoid impacting younger players’ development, UEFA is reportedly still backing calls for the FIFA President to leave his position. The most likely way to make this a reality is by putting forward a candidate to run against Infantino in March 2027, though UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has ruled himself out.
Any candidate would need to be announced before the 18 November deadline.
Controversies galore
While opposition to Infantino strategises over how to remove him from the role, more controversies continue to emerge.
Earlier today (27 August), The Athletic reported that Infantino didn’t tell the FIFA Council that he was seeking outside investment for a proposed global Under-15 competition. Sources close to three Council members said they only discovered that external investors were involved after previous reporting on the project.
The proposal attracted more than $250m in financial commitments, led by Eldridge Industries, the company founded by Todd Boehly.
FIFA told The Athletic that the Council had been informed in December 2025 that the administration was looking at ways to fund the tournament and that Infantino had stressed the need to find financial support. However, FIFA didn’t state that Council members had been told external investors could receive returns from the project.
The $250m-plus proposal was rejected before the World Cup, with FIFA later confirming that the first Under-15 tournament would instead take place in Azerbaijan.
