LONDON, August 27. /TASS/. The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) prepares to initiate criminal prosecution of Gianni Infantino, the president of the world’s governing football body, FIFA, over his attempt to sell World Cup shares, British sports correspondent Rob Harris announced on his social network account on Thursday.

"UEFA is preparing to bring criminal proceedings against FIFA President Gianni Infantino in Switzerland over the attempt to sell shares in the World Cup to private investors," he wrote on X.

Infantino announced a proposal on July 30 to sell a share of the FIFA World Cup commercial rights to private investors under a scheme that could potentially bring it tens of millions of dollars. The plan involved establishing a company that would control the major men's and women's FIFA tournaments - the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. The organization consulted with people close to the administration of US President Donald Trump prior to voicing this decision.

The European governing body of football, UEFA, later responded that 55 member-states of the organization voted to boycott all football tournaments sponsored by FIFA. The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) also rejected Infantino’s proposal.

In March 2023, Infantino was re-elected for another term of four years as the president of the world’s governing body of football. Infantino, who was 52 at that time, ran unopposed as he was elected unanimously at the 2023 FIFA Congress in the Rwandan capital of Kigali.

Infantino was elected the president of the world’s governing body in February 2016 at the FIFA Extraordinary Congress in Paris. In June 2019, he was re-elected for another four-year presidential term.

Born in Switzerland, Infantino, 56, is fluent in French, Italian and German and also speaks English, Spanish and Arabic.