UEFA has instructed FIFA to lock down every document tied to its abandoned World Cup privatisation plan, a formal step of the kind that precedes arbitration and litigation. The letter, reported this week, demands that FIFA take “immediate steps to identify, locate and preserve all documents and electronically stored information” relating to the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal.

In a separate note, UEFA told FIFA it “is actively considering legal action, arbitration, and/or regulatory complaints” arising from the plan.

The stakes of the underlying boycott are without modern precedent. UEFA’s 55 members include Europe’s biggest television markets and most valuable clubs, and their absence from a men’s or women’s World Cup would strip the tournament of most of its commercial and sporting weight. The first competitive test falls on 5 September, when the FIFA Women’s Under-20 World Cup begins in Poland.

The $20bn FFE and its four-day life

Infantino unveiled the FFE on 29 July: a new commercial vehicle that would have handled the operational rights to FIFA’s tournaments, valued internally at around $20bn (£15bn), with up to $4.2bn (£3.1bn) offered to outside investors. The lead investor was reportedly Thrive Capital, run by Joshua Kushner.

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The proposal survived four days. UEFA voted unanimously to boycott FIFA competitions on 30 July, CONCACAF rejected the plan the same day, and the Asian Football Confederation opposed it the next. Infantino’s own senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned in protest. By the following Saturday, Infantino had pulled the plan.

The apology that changed nothing

FIFA held a crisis meeting in Rabat on 5 August. Infantino received the “full support” of Secretary General Mattias Grafström and the FIFA management board, and the organisation apologised to its 211 member associations for the “mistakes” behind the FFE.

UEFA dismissed the show of support inside 24 hours.

“Yesterday’s announcement that some people employed by the FIFA president (and whose careers depend on his favour) agree with him changes nothing,” the confederation said.

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UEFA restated the two conditions for standing down: the sell-off proposals had to be formally withdrawn, and assurances had to be given that “such attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again.” Neither, UEFA said, had been met.

“That position holds.”

UEFA said there was no need to “sell off the family silver to pay for it,” while CONCACAF argued that FIFA’s “existing vast reserves can be dispersed to our membership” without any private investment at all.

The March 2027 vote in Rabat

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has urged Europe’s associations to withdraw the letters of support they had previously written for Infantino ahead of the next FIFA presidential vote. The candidacy deadline is 18 November, with the election scheduled for March 2027 in Rabat.

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Under FIFA statutes each of the 211 associations casts an equal ballot, so a confederation cannot deliver its members’ votes. Wales and Finland have nonetheless already withdrawn their endorsement of Infantino, and the English FA is set to follow. Both CONCACAF and AFC have publicly questioned his leadership.

Infantino remains in post. UEFA’s next moves will decide whether the boycott becomes real: the 18 November candidacy deadline, and whether the document preservation letter is followed by an actual complaint.

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