UEFA has threatened legal action against FIFA president Gianni Infantino over his now-scrapped plan to sell stakes in World Cups and other major tournaments to private investors — a proposal that would have let outside money into the running of football's biggest events for the first time.

In a letter to Infantino, UEFA said it is "actively considering legal action, arbitration, and/or regulatory complaints" arising from the plan, which was first reported by The Telegraph. The letter also demanded that Infantino and FIFA immediately preserve all documents and electronically stored information in their possession — a step typically taken in advance of formal legal proceedings (BBC Sport).

The plan at the centre of the dispute was ambitious. Infantino proposed creating a commercial subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) — a new body that would run FIFA's main events, including the World Cup, with private investors able to buy minority, non-controlling stakes. Reuters reported that Infantino envisioned a $20 billion company, with 20% of it sold to private investors. The investor group was led by Joshua Kushner, according to Al Jazeera (Reuters; Al Jazeera).

The proposal left regional confederations blindsided. UEFA and Concacaf, the governing body for North and Central America and the Caribbean, both released statements criticising the plan. Manchester mayor Andy Burnham also weighed in against it. Wales went further than any other nation, becoming the first to publicly withdraw backing for Infantino's bid to continue as FIFA president (BBC Sport).

Infantino had sweetened the deal. He wrote to FIFA's member associations promising each would receive $40 million (£30 million) if they backed the proposal, with a deadline of 19 September to accept the funding (BBC Sport). UEFA's boycott threat, reported on 31 July, would be activated if that funding deal was accepted (BBC Sport).

On 1 August, Infantino conceded. He said FIFA would no longer proceed with the proposal to sell stakes in its competitions to private investors (BBC Sport). The climbdown came after days of mounting opposition from across the game.

Despite dropping the plan, UEFA is not letting the matter rest. Its letter to Infantino makes clear the confederation wants answers about how the proposal was developed and who was involved — hence the demand to preserve records. UEFA and FIFPro, the global players' union, have a history of challenging third-party ownership of players, having formally complained to the European Commission about the practice in 2015 (UEFA).

What makes this stand out is the speed of the collapse. A plan reportedly worth $20 billion, pitched with promises of record payouts to member associations, unravelled in under two weeks once the broader football community saw the details. For fans, the episode is a reminder that the World Cup — the sport's most treasured event — sits at the intersection of global politics, commercial ambition, and institutional power, and that the people who run the game are watched as closely as the players on the pitch.