Monaco, Tuesday afternoon. Uefa's most powerful figures have gathered before the Champions League draw, but the fixture on everyone's mind is not on a pitch. Documents obtained by BBC Sport reveal that Uefa has filed a formal application in Switzerland requesting access to evidence for criminal proceedings against Fifa president Gianni Infantino — accusing him personally of criminal mismanagement. It is one of the most dramatic legal escalations in football's governing history.

The target is Infantino's short-lived scheme, Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE), which he proposed shortly after this summer's World Cup. Under the plan, private investors would have acquired permanent stakes in Fifa's flagship competitions — the World Cup among them — for a reported $4.2 billion. That figure, Uefa argues, implied a total enterprise value of roughly $20 billion: absurdly low for assets of that scale and global reach.

The sale was eventually scrapped following a wave of opposition from across the football world, but Uefa insists the damage to trust has already been done. What makes the accusations especially striking is how the plan was approved internally. According to Uefa's application, Infantino pushed FFE through a hastily convened internal meeting, where some officials had never previously heard of the scheme and were given only hours to sign off on a multi-billion dollar decision. Uefa describes the proposed sale as a "fraudulently off-market price promoted by Infantino for his own benefit," and says it is also considering action against other senior Fifa officials.

In a statement released after the Monaco meeting, Uefa said those present had unanimously instructed its leadership to pursue every available institutional, political, and legal avenue to reform Fifa and restore proper limits on presidential authority.