European soccer's governing body is threatening legal action against FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Joshua Kushner — brother of Jared Kushner — over a secret plan to privatize $4.2 billion worth of World Cup profits, and the fight over evidence is already underway.
Why it matters: An international sports cartel tried to quietly sell off the commercial rights to the world's biggest sporting event to a politically connected New York investment firm, and the only reason it failed is because someone leaked it. Now the same power brokers who run global soccer are circling wagons and demanding documents be preserved — which means they're worried about what's already been destroyed.
Infantino's proposal, dubbed the FIFA Forward Enterprise, would have spun off FIFA's commercial and tournament operations into a separate entity valued at $20 billion, with Thrive Capital — Kushner's venture firm — positioned to take a 20 percent stake. FIFA's 211 member federations, who already own the not-for-profit governing body, were offered one-off payments of $20 million each to go along. The deal came with a mid-September deadline to accept, according to AP News.
The plan collapsed early Saturday after media reports exposed it and UEFA led a unanimous boycott threat. But the fingerprints tell the story: this was a scheme to let private equity skim profits off a tournament built by nations and fans, while creating a new commissioner-style role for Infantino that would pay him well beyond his current $6 million annual salary through 2031. FIFA's own chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, called it "the project of just one man" and said staff felt "deceived" by their boss, according to a statement to AP News.
Politico.eu highlighted the Kushner family connection — Joshua is the brother of Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law. That's not incidental. It's the revolving door between political dynasties and global sports corruption that should trouble every American who remembers how these same networks operate. When politically connected investment firms get first dibs on privatizing international assets, the deal was never going to be advertised on the open market.
UEFA's lawyers at Dechert in New York sent a letter Friday naming 18 FIFA executives who must preserve all documents, data, and electronic messages as potential evidence. The warning was blunt: any destruction of materials "may constitute spoliation of evidence." UEFA says it is "actively considering legal action, arbitration, and/or regulatory complaints" over a plan it calls "fundamentally incompatible with the proper governance of football."
AP News noted that UEFA now wants to end Infantino's decade-long presidency entirely, stating he has "lost the confidence of world soccer" and that "no option should be off the table." EU Sports Commissioner Glenn Micallef also confirmed the European Commission will investigate the proposal for competition law violations.
Infantino's support has fractured. The Asian Football Confederation and CONCACAF both opposed the plan. His traditional base in Africa still backs him, and South America's CONMEBOL wants him to expand the 2030 World Cup to 64 teams — which would hand more hosting games to Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, home of CONMEBOL president Alejandro Domínguez.
The proposal is dead. The questions aren't. Who else was in line for a cut? What documents have already been deleted? And how many more deals like this get done when nobody leaks?
