Football: UEFA Criminal Proceedings Against Infantino and FIFA
By Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw
It has now been reported that UEFA is bringing criminal legal proceedings against FIFA and its President Gianni Infantino relating to the abandoned plan to sell stakes in the FIFA World Cup and other competitions to private investors.
It appears that an application has been made by UEFA to a Court in Florida, United States, where FIFA operated for delivering the 2026 Men’s World Cup, requesting access to evidence and documents for use eventually in criminal proceedings in Switzerland against FIFA and its President.
The application claims that Infantino engineered the plan to enrich himself and the potential private investors.
According to the application:
"In truth, it was a vehicle for Infantino and that small circle to acquire a permanent stake in and otherwise profit from FIFA's most valuable assets to the detriment of FIFA, its members, and other parties within the football family.
Infantino pushed the plan through internal FIFA approval only days earlier at a hastily convened meeting where a limited number of FIFA's management officials and employees - some of whom had never heard of the plan - were given mere hours to sign off on an unprecedented multi-billion-dollar scheme."
The application further claims that “the valuation of the stakes to be sold were not independently verified and would have been offered too cheaply”.
This, indeed, is a very serious escalation in this sad and continuing saga!
Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw may be contacted by e-mail at ‘
