UEFA Prepares Criminal Complaint Against FIFA’s Gianni Infantino Over World Cup Stake Sale

UEFA is in the process of filing a criminal complaint against FIFA president Gianni Infantino over his failed plan to sell a significant stake in the World Cup to private investors.

In legal documents obtained by Complex, UEFA is requesting discovery of information from Thrive Capital Management, the New York investment firm, founded by Joshua Kushner, which was expected to spearhead the sale of a 20 to 30 percent World Cup stake until the threat of a boycott upended those plans.

The filing indicates that the request for discovery precedes a “contemplated criminal proceeding” against Infantino in a Switzerland court.

UEFA claimed Infantino “unilaterally designated” Thrive Eternal, an affiliate with Thrive Capital, to lead the investor group, and pushed the planned sale through internal approval before “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.”

UEFA also took issue with the $4.2 billion price tag attached to the sale of a fifth of an entity known as FIFA Forward Enterprise, which included World Cup broadcast rights, sponsorship, ticketing, and licensing. The European governing body deemed a $20 billion valuation to not only be “absurdly low,” but “a figure that was neither the product of an open, competitive auction, nor 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 filing reads.

UEFA is seeking “documents and communications” from Thrive and Kushner regarding the “origination and development” of the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal, as well as “any valuation work performed by or shared with Thrive or Kushner in connection with the FFE proposal.”