UEFA fires legal warning shot at Gianni Infantino, FIFA over World Cup sale plans

Gianni Infantino and FIFA may have scrapped plans to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors, but the international drama isn’t over yet. Despite Infantino and FIFA standing down, UEFA—European football’s governing body—has informed Infantino and his private equity firm partners (Joshua Kushner, Greg Maffei, JP Morgan, and Open Economics) that they may still be taking legal action, so they shouldn’t destroy any documents related to this issue.

“UEFA has raised the possibility that it could take legal action against FIFA president Gianni Infantino over his World Cup sell-off plan and warned him not to destroy any documents relating to the controversial proposal, sources told ESPN,” via ESPN.com.

Infantino’s plan was to create “a $20 billion company to run the World Cup with private investors, including the Kushner family, but drew pushback that grew every day since Tuesday’s announcement.”

Reports on this topic often included the fact that Infantino stood to personally make millions off this deal.

UEFA was among the organizations leading the charge against this plan. The group, along with North and Central America’s CONCACAF, threatened to boycott the next World Cup if Infantino and his partners decided to go through with this plan.

All this puts Infantino’s status as FIFA president in jeopardy. He is facing an election for a fourth and final term at the helm of the World Cup-presenting organization, which is now uncertain. What should have been more or less a formality is now anything but, following this scrapped private equity plan.

The English and Welsh football associations have withdrawn their support of Infantino’s re-election bid, and it seems as though others may follow. CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani (who is currently a FIFA vice-president) and other reports indicate that UEFA is preparing candidates to oppose Infantino as well.

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