UEFA ups pressure on Gianni Infantino, ready to launch criminal proceedings against FIFA president

UEFA has made a request for the disclosure of documents in advance of potentially launching “criminal proceedings” against Gianni Infantino in Switzerland over his abandoned World Cup sell-off plan.

In a legal document filed in the United States District Court, seen by The Athletic, European football’s governing body has accused FIFA’s president of “promoting” a “fraudulently off-market price for his own benefit” when proposing to sell a stake in world soccer governing body’s commercial and event operations to Thrive Eternal — a U.S. investment fund run by Joshua Kushner.

FIFA wanted to sell a fifth of the new entity, called FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE), to the group for $4.2billion (£3.1bn) before the plans were scrapped after an overwhelming backlash that continues to threaten Infantino’s position.

UEFA’s lawyers say that valuation was “absurdly low”, nor was it “the product of an open, competitive auction”. They also said it was “not tested by any independent valuer”.

“The valuation work exchanged with Thrive, and any internal Thrive analyses of FIFA’s enterprise value, 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 legal filing reads.

FIFA and Thrive Eternal have been approached for comment.

The launch and subsequent collapse of Infantino’s controversial plan over the span of just a few days last month has engulfed world football and has seen the FIFA president face repeated calls for him to resign from his role.

The 56-year-old announced his intention to stand in the presidential election in March ahead of what would be a third and final term, albeit before the FFE fallout, and previously claimed to have received more than 200 letters of support from member associations.

However, that number has now significantly dwindled, with UEFA, Concacaf — the confederation for North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football — and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) all calling for the Swiss-Italian to stand down.