UEFA Pursues a Criminal Case Against FIFA's Infantino, Drops Its Boycott Threat

European football's governing body wanted to boycott FIFA tournaments over a disputed $20 billion World Cup investment plan. Instead, it's going after Infantino in court — and stepping back from the boycott, for now.

By Miles Ashworth · 27 Aug 2026 · 1 min read · United Kingdom edition

FIFA president Gianni Infantino, 2024. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

UEFA is pursuing legal action in a New York court against FIFA, FIFA president Gianni Infantino, and Thrive Capital — the lead investor in a proposed $20 billion World Cup investment plan called FIFA Forward Enterprise. The goal of the US filing is discovery: getting documents UEFA can then bring to Swiss authorities, where FIFA is headquartered, as part of a criminal complaint.

The complaint UEFA and other interested parties are preparing centres on Article 158 of the Swiss Criminal Code — criminal mismanagement — over how the FIFA Forward Enterprise plan was put together. Infantino is accused of offering a stake in the new subsidiary without going through FIFA's proper internal channels.

UEFA had been threatening to boycott FIFA competitions entirely over the dispute, a real possibility given the next World Cup is being co-hosted across Portugal, Spain and Morocco. That threat has now been withdrawn — but only "on a provisional basis," not dropped for good.

Whatever happens with the legal case, the boycott threat itself was the real story: European football's governing body was prepared to consider pulling its members out of FIFA's own flagship tournament rather than accept how this deal was structured. Stepping back from that doesn't mean the underlying dispute is settled — just that it isn't being fought that particular way, for now.