UEFA Threatens Infantino Legal Action Over World Cup Plan
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- UEFA raised the possibility of legal action against FIFA president Gianni Infantino and sent him a document preservation letter — a formal written request to stop the destruction of evidence related to the World Cup sell-off proposal
- UEFA also wrote to Joshua Kushner, Greg Maffei, JP Morgan, and Open Economics to inform them it is considering legal action over their association with the shelved proposal
- Infantino scrapped his $20 billion proposal to sell stakes in a new FIFA subsidiary running the World Cup and Club World Cup to private investors including the Kushner family, announcing late Friday that "the proposal will not proceed"
- UEFA's 55 member nations had agreed Thursday to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions to protest the proposal, stating "some things are simply too important to sell"
- Two senior FIFA officials publicly criticized the plan — one resigned as a presidential adviser and a second said staff members were deceived by the project
- The collapse of the $20 billion subsidiary proposal has thrown Infantino's expected March 2027 reelection as FIFA president into doubt, and the Football Association of Wales has withdrawn support for his re-election
Why it matters: UEFA has escalated from political pressure to a formal litigation track, sending document preservation letters not just to Infantino but to four named private investors and banks — meaning the fight now extends into the boardrooms of JP Morgan and the Kushner family's financial network. With UEFA's 55 members already committed to a tournament boycott and Infantino's March 2027 reelection in doubt, the controversy has shifted from a policy dispute to a potential legal and institutional crisis for FIFA.
