The dispute between FIFA and UEFA is now a matter for lawyers.
In a letter dated 31 July and issued by New York firm Dechert, UEFA put FIFA on formal notice that it is actively considering legal action, arbitration, and/or regulatory complaints tied to the collapsed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan. The FFE would have sold a 20 per cent minority stake in a $20bn commercial spin-off, raising roughly $4.2bn from investors led by a firm owned by Joshua Kushner.
Attached to the letter is a list of 18 FIFA executives whose data, documents and electronic messages must be preserved. Gianni Infantino heads it. Also named are chief financial officer Thomas Peyer and Arsène Wenger, the former Arsenal manager who now runs FIFA’s global development programme. Wenger has said he was “not aware” of Infantino’s plan.
What a preservation notice actually does
A preservation notice, sometimes called a litigation hold, is not itself a lawsuit. It is the legal step a prospective claimant takes to freeze the paper trail. UEFA’s letter spells out the consequence in the plainest terms.
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“Any destruction, deletion, alteration, concealment, or loss of relevant materials following receipt of this notice … may constitute spoliation of evidence.”
Until 31 July, Infantino was under political pressure. From that date, every senior FIFA executive on the list has a legal duty to hold on to every email, message and internal note that might touch the FFE proposal. Routine document destruction has to stop.
Not the end of the story
UEFA’s public line matched the tone of the letter. Its statement said the European body had lost confidence in Infantino and framed his climbdown on the FFE as the beginning of a longer job.
“This must not be the end of the story. The task of rebuilding trust in FIFA has only just begun.”
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The notice arrived days after Infantino scrapped the FFE proposal in the face of a threatened boycott by UEFA’s 55 member federations, and just ahead of a fresh problem for the FIFA president. On 7 August, the Daily Telegraph reported allegations concerning a departure payment made by UEFA to a female employee while Infantino was the European body’s general secretary. His spokesman called any suggestion of misconduct “categorically untrue” and “defamatory,” and said no complaint had ever been raised against him. UEFA has confirmed the departure payment itself and said it was in line with regulations.
FIFA points to its members
On 9 August, FIFA pushed back at the wider campaign against its president. A statement from the governing body condemned what it called a “concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine FIFA and its president.”
“Those who do not have the support of FIFA’s Member Associations should not seek to achieve through allegation, insinuation or misinformation what they cannot achieve through FIFA’s established democratic processes.”
Infantino was elected by the 211 member associations and the next presidential vote is in Morocco in March 2027, where he is expected to seek a fourth term running to 2031. The Confederation of African Football has publicly backed him, and South America’s CONMEBOL has said any removal would need a full vote of members. Confederations do not, however, control their members’ ballots; each of the 211 associations votes for itself, and the Norwegian federation has already called for Infantino to step down.
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Why the list matters more than the lawsuit
Between now and the election, the preservation notice sits quietly in FIFA’s inboxes. If UEFA files no case, it costs FIFA nothing more than a legal bill and an internal warning. If UEFA does file, over the FFE process, over how the plan was cleared, over anything the 18 named executives touched, the paper trail is already frozen. That is what has rattled Zurich: not the threat of court, but a list of names that will outlast the current fight.
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