The war between world and European football's governing bodies is no longer a battle for influence behind closed doors. UEFA have detonated the biggest legal bombshell in the history of the game, launching direct criminal proceedings against Gianni Infantino and FIFA itself.
The charge against the FIFA president comes down to this: attempting to sell the world's most sacred tournaments, the men's and women's World Cups, to private investors in a secret deal woven in the dark for more than a year, without anyone's knowledge.
Exclusive documents published by BBC Sport revealed that European football's governing body has officially begun criminal legal proceedings in Switzerland against world football's governing body and its president.
Behind this unprecedented escalation lies the controversial plan, later scrapped, to sell shares of the commercial rights to FIFA's major tournaments to private-sector investors.
UEFA submitted an official request to obtain evidence and documents for use in the criminal case brought before the Swiss courts against both Infantino and FIFA.
The text of that request lays bare the scale of the shock within the corridors of European football. It read: "On 28 July 2026, and without consulting the FIFA Council or UEFA or any of the other continental confederations, or any of FIFA's 211 member associations, Infantino, who is alleged to be acting on behalf of FIFA, publicly announced a plan to place the commercial rights to the men's and women's World Cups and the Club World Cup into a new subsidiary company: FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE)."
In a sharply accusatory tone, the request added: "Infantino's announcement amounted to the public disclosure of a plan he had devised with a small group of conspirators, who are said to have been working to develop it secretly for more than a year."
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These are the most serious accusations Infantino has faced since taking over the FIFA presidency. UEFA have placed him in direct confrontation with the Swiss criminal justice system, accusing him of acting alone and selling the legacy of world football without any mandate from FIFA's General Assembly.