Global Pulse

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大洋洲

  • ‘Find your own room’: Japan says can’t handle added Asian Games numbers

    ‘Find your own room’: Japan says can’t handle added Asian Games numbers

    Just one month out from the opening of the 2026 Asian Games in central Japan, local organizers are facing an unprecedented accommodation and budget crisis that has forced them to issue an extraordinary mandate: any extra participants added after initial planning will have to source and pay for their own lodging. The multi-sport continental event is scheduled to run from September 19 to October 4 across Nagoya city and the wider Aichi Prefecture region, bringing together thousands of athletes and officials from across Asia.

    When the host city agreement was first signed, both the local organizing committee and the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), the governing body of the continental Games, agreed on a maximum cap of 15,000 total participants including athletes and team officials. That number was already larger than the typical delegation size for a Summer Olympic Games, putting early strain on local planning resources. But last week, the OCA updated the projected participant count to 17,000, splitting the total into 11,000 competing athletes and 6,000 accredited officials, a jump of 2,000 people that organizers say they cannot absorb.

    To cut down on infrastructure costs that have ballooned for large international multi-sport events in recent decades, Japanese organizers opted against building a purpose-built permanent athletes’ village, a common cost-saving strategy for smaller host regions. Instead, they designed a distributed accommodation model that relies on three separate sources: a chartered international cruise ship, repurposed temporary shipping container-style wooden huts, and pre-booked blocks at commercial hotels across the region, with some even booked in Tokyo for athletes competing in the city’s hosted events of swimming, diving and equestrian. Under this model, 4,000 to 5,000 athletes will be housed on the chartered Italian cruise ship Costa Serena, while 2,000 additional participants will stay in the temporary container huts, and the remaining will occupy the pre-booked hotel blocks.

    The increase in participants stems from a decision by the OCA back in March to add two new sports to the 2026 Asian Games program: teqball, a fast-growing tabletop football hybrid sport, and padel, a popular racket sport that blends elements of tennis and squash. While the additions expand the scope of the Games to include increasingly popular emerging sports, they have directly led to the unexpected growth in delegation sizes that caught local organizers off guard.

    In press comments this week, Hideaki Omura, president of the local organizing committee and governor of Aichi Prefecture, made clear that the organizing body has neither the extra manpower, available space, nor allocated budget to accommodate the 2,000 extra participants. “The host city agreement specifies a delegation of 15,000 people,” Omura said. “We have not set aside a budget for any more than that. There is simply nowhere for them to stay.”

    Local organizers confirmed this week that they have formally requested the OCA adjust and reduce the projected participant number to align with the original agreed cap. But for any delegations that still choose to send extra participants beyond the initial cap, Omura said, the requirement is clear: “If they still wish to come, they will have to make their own arrangements.”

    Nagoya Mayor Ichiro Hirosawa, acting chairman of the local organizing committee, echoed Omura’s comments in a Wednesday briefing, noting that both time constraints and limited physical capacity make accommodating the extra numbers impossible. “From a cost perspective we are operating on a tight budget and it is difficult,” Hirosawa added.

    Agence France-Presse has repeatedly reached out to the OCA for comment on the dispute, but as of Thursday, no response from the Olympic Council of Asia has been made public.

  • ‘He will’: Wayne Bennett confirms Latrell Mitchell will play in a huge boost for the Bunnies ahead of the finals

    ‘He will’: Wayne Bennett confirms Latrell Mitchell will play in a huge boost for the Bunnies ahead of the finals

    The National Rugby League (NRL) premiership race has been thrown into a new state of flux, as one of the competition’s biggest superstars is set to make his return just weeks out from the finals series, turning a mid-tier Sydney club into an immediate genuine title contender.

    For months, rugby league fans have speculated over when star South Sydney Rabbitohs centre Latrell Mitchell would return from a persistent injury that sidelined him mid-season. Now, three short words from legendary Rabbitohs head coach Wayne Bennett have put all speculation to rest: Mitchell is cleared to hit the field this Saturday.

    Mitchell has not played a competitive NRL match since South Sydney’s Round 11 loss to the Dolphins on May 15. The 29-year-old representative star has spent more than three months recovering from a back nerve issue that eventually triggered a persistent calf problem, forcing him to miss the entire 2024 State of Origin series for New South Wales and sparking widespread fears that he would miss the remainder of the 2024 season.

    Before his injury, Mitchell was in the best form of his decades-long career, notching 11 tries across just nine appearances. That stellar run included a four-try masterclass against the St George Illawarra Dragons that cemented his status as one of the league’s most dominant attacking weapons.

    In Mitchell’s absence, the Rabbitohs have turned in inconsistent results, hovering around the lower edge of the top eight finals positions. But with Mitchell set to link back up with star playmakers Cam Murray and Cody Walker, South Sydney is now being widely tipped as a dark horse that could upend the premiership favourites in the finals.

    Mitchell was originally slated to return last weekend, but was a late scratching as the club’s medical staff exercised extra caution. This week, however, the star centre has received full medical clearance to face the Gold Coast Titans on Saturday afternoon. When asked directly by reporters if Mitchell would take the field, Bennett confirmed simply: “Yes he will.”

    Bennett emphasized that the club has no plans to overwork their returning star in his first match back, noting that the side has held its own without Mitchell’s contribution. “The boys have been great without him, so we just need to get him back playing now and not put him under any unnecessary pressure where he thinks that he’s got to do something special for us because we can handle ourselves pretty well,” Bennett said. “It’s great to have him back and get a bit of condition and contact behind him.”

    Addressing questions about whether Mitchell’s return was a rushed move that hid lingering injury issues, Bennett shut down any concerns, confirming the centre is completely match-fit with no ongoing pain management required. “He’s totally cleared to play,” Bennett said. “There are no needles involved, there are no painkillers involved, there’s nothing. He’s 100 per cent fit.”

    The timing of Mitchell’s return could not be better for South Sydney. With just two rounds remaining in the regular NRL season, the Rabbitohs hold a two-point buffer over the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs for the last finals spot, and a win over the Titans this weekend will all but lock in their place in the post-season.

    Bennett has already mapped out his game plan for Mitchell’s return: the superstar will come off the bench to play left centre, forcing incumbent utility Tallis Duncan to shift into the back row. Beyond his attacking prowess, Mitchell’s reliable goalkicking is also expected to solve a recent kicking slump that has cost South Sydney close matches in recent weeks.

    For Duncan and the rest of the Rabbitohs squad, Mitchell’s return is more than just a tactical boost – it’s a massive morale boost ahead of the finals. “He brings himself, you know? His X-factor,” Duncan said. “He’s Latrell, so any time you can be on the same field as someone like that, you know he’s a big moments player. When we need a moment, he’ll come up with the footy.”

    With Mitchell back in the fold, the league’s top-four contending teams now face a new, dangerous threat to their premiership hopes, reshaping the final weeks of the 2024 NRL season.

  • Tragedy as man, 34, dies after being trapped under van in alleged hit-and-run in Carlingford

    Tragedy as man, 34, dies after being trapped under van in alleged hit-and-run in Carlingford

    A 34-year-old pedestrian hit in an alleged hit-and-run incident in Sydney’s northwestern suburb of Carlingford has passed away, four days after the crash left him trapped under a vehicle with life-threatening injuries.

    The tragedy unfolded just after 12:30 p.m. local time on Sunday, when Frederick Kipruto became wedged underneath a Nissan van at the intersection of Ferndale Avenue and Edinburgh Avenue. He remained trapped undetected for a period before emergency responders located him, administered on-site first aid, and rushed him by ambulance to Westmead Hospital. Despite urgent medical intervention, Kipruto, who suffered severe critical head trauma, succumbed to his injuries on Thursday evening.

    News of Kipruto’s death was first confirmed by a member of the local community online. Tributes have quickly poured in for the 34-year-old, with close friend Maxwell Kiptanui Keter sharing a message of condolence on social media. “Our heartfelt condolences go to his family, relatives, friends, and the entire community during this very difficult time,” Keter wrote. “May Fredrick’s soul rest in eternal peace.”

    According to New South Wales Police allegations, the driver of the van involved, identified as Jacob Kurui, fled the collision scene immediately after striking Kipruto, running into nearby dense bushland to avoid capture. He was eventually located and taken into custody at Castle Hill Police Station, where police say he refused to comply with a mandatory breath alcohol test.

    Kurui was subsequently transported under armed police guard to Hornsby Hospital to complete the required testing. He has since been hit with three criminal charges: driving while disqualified, refusing to undergo breath test analysis, and failing to provide personal identification and collision details to responding officers.

    The accused made his first court appearance at Parramatta Local Court on Monday, where a judge refused his application for bail. He is scheduled to reappear before the court on September 17 to face the charges against him.

  • Fresh flood warnings for disaster-hit Nepal and Tibet, 1,400 still missing

    Fresh flood warnings for disaster-hit Nepal and Tibet, 1,400 still missing

    A catastrophic glacial collapse along the remote Himalayan border between Nepal and Tibet has triggered a devastating “inland tsunami” of freezing mud and debris that has killed at least 392 people, left more than 1,400 unaccounted for, and forced rescuers to navigate new, urgent flood risks as search efforts enter their third day.

    The disaster, which struck on Wednesday, was initially misidentified as a magnitude 4.4 earthquake by global seismic monitors, but the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) later confirmed it was caused by a sudden glacial collapse that sent a torrent of icy sludge cascading downstream across the border. The debris flow, which traveled roughly 170 kilometers south into Nepal, leveled entire villages, buried homes, crumpled bridges and dams, and swept vehicles away like discarded toys.

    Among the missing are hundreds of foreign nationals, many of whom were either trekking through Nepal’s Himalayan trails or completing a sacred pilgrimage to Tibet’s snow-capped Mount Kailash. Nepal’s police force has confirmed 389 recovered bodies within its borders, with 910 people still out of contact—517 of whom are foreign tourists. Beijing adds that another 100 Chinese citizens missing in Nepal are not included in that count. Indians make up the largest group of missing foreigners, with 90 U.S. citizens also reported unaccounted for, alongside nationals from Australia, Britain, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa and South Korea. Across the border in Tibet, Chinese authorities report three deaths and hundreds more missing, while 555 stranded tourists and 499 local residents have already been evacuated from high-risk zones.

    As emergency teams, soldiers, and specialized rescue units race against time to pull survivors from debris fields and locate remains of the missing, their efforts have been significantly complicated by new flood warnings. Enormous piles of landslide debris have blocked mountain valleys, trapping water that has formed new unstable lakes behind the rubble. On Thursday, Chinese state media warned that one of these newly formed lakes faces a “high risk of breaching” that would send a second destructive flood downstream. Nepal’s own Flood Forecasting Division echoed the alert, issuing a special warning that urged rescue teams and local residents to exercise extreme caution.

    For survivors waiting in makeshift hospitals and relief camps, the days since the disaster have been marked by agonizing uncertainty. Kula Priya, a Nepali resident who lost three homes to the deluge and her eldest son who remains missing, told reporters “I don’t care for wealth. I just want my son back. We had three houses, all of which were washed away by the floods.” In Malaysia, 26-year-old Logadarrsiny Raman waits for news of her parents, aunt, and uncle, who were part of a 17-person pilgrimage group that lost contact minutes before the flood hit the area they were traveling through. “I’m very anxious,” she told AFP. “My only hope is to hear back from them that they are safe.”

    Rescue operations have mobilized extensive resources across both sides of the border: Chinese authorities have deployed nearly 800 emergency workers, supported by sniffer dogs, speed boats, satellite imagery and drones to navigate the hard-to-reach mountain terrain, while Nepali soldiers are also using sniffer dogs to locate bodies buried under thick layers of mud. Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah, who called on the nation to unite in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, toured the hardest-hit regions on Thursday, ordering local officials to prioritize immediate relief for displaced families and clear blocked access routes to cut off affected zones.

    Experts link the rising risk of such glacial disasters to the broader impacts of climate change, which is accelerating glacial melt across the Himalayas and around the world, increasing the frequency of glacial collapses and outburst floods from glacial lakes. Ruth Gamble, an environmental historian at Australia’s La Trobe University, described the sudden debris flow as “like an inland tsunami” that caught communities and visitors off guard. In a message of condolence, exiled Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said he would pray for all those who had lost their lives in the disaster.

  • US court rules Pentagon ban of Anthropic unlawful

    US court rules Pentagon ban of Anthropic unlawful

    In a landmark ruling issued Thursday, a US federal judge has struck down as illegal punitive measures imposed earlier this year by the Trump administration against leading artificial intelligence developer Anthropic, finding the government targeted the company in retaliation for its public criticism of Pentagon policy.

    The legal dispute traces back to Anthropic’s high-profile refusal to grant the US military access to its flagship Claude AI model for two controversial use cases: powering fully autonomous lethal weapons, and conducting mass surveillance of American civilians. The decision drew fierce public pushback from former President Donald Trump, who labeled the AI firm a “radical left, woke company” and “out-of-control” in a February social media post. Shortly after, the administration enacted sweeping sanctions, including an order barring all federal agencies from using Anthropic’s tools, and a designation by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that labeled the company a national “supply chain risk” — a classification that prior to this case had only been applied to foreign firms.

    In her 59-page ruling, Judge Rita Lin rejected the administration’s justification for the penalties. “The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics,” Lin wrote in the decision reviewed by Agence France-Presse. The judge permanently blocked the named federal agencies from enforcing Trump’s executive order, and formally overturned Hegseth’s supply chain risk designation, cementing a temporary suspension of the sanctions that she first ordered in March. The ruling goes into effect immediately, though administration officials have indicated they may still appeal the decision.

    Anthropic welcomed the court’s outcome in a statement Thursday. “We welcome the court’s ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful,” a company spokesperson said. “We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology.”

    Court documents and prior reporting confirm the US military had already integrated Claude into a wide range of classified and sensitive government systems before the sanctions were imposed. Multiple outlets including the Wall Street Journal and Axios have reported that the AI tool was even used during the January special operations mission that captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. The supply chain risk designation, formally finalized in March, immediately canceled all of Anthropic’s existing military contracts and barred other Pentagon contractors from integrating the company’s AI technology into their work.

    Despite the major legal victory, Anthropic’s fight against administration penalties is not yet complete. A second separate sanction imposed by the Pentagon the same day, rooted in public procurement regulations, remains in place as a separate legal challenge proceeds in a Washington DC court, where a judge declined to suspend the measure back in April.

    Tensions between the Trump White House and Anthropic extend beyond the military access dispute, with the administration repeatedly pushing back against CEO Dario Amodei’s consistent public warnings about the existential and societal risks of unregulated advanced AI, including its potential to displace large numbers of American workers. Looking ahead, the AI firm is widely expected to launch its initial public offering on Wall Street in the coming weeks. Industry analysts project the listing could surpass the record-breaking debut of SpaceX back in June, which raised $86.2 billion and set a new benchmark for private-to-public market valuation in the tech sector.

  • Hunt on for newest millionaire as winning Weekday Windfall ticket sold in Adelaide

    Hunt on for newest millionaire as winning Weekday Windfall ticket sold in Adelaide

    A life-changing $1 million lotto prize remains unclaimed in Adelaide, Australia, after a single ticket matched all Division One numbers in this week’s Weekday Windfall draw, official lottery operator The Lott has confirmed.

    The winning entry was bought at Topz Shopz, a small local retailer located on Dorothy Street in Brahma Lodge, a suburban community north of Adelaide’s central business district. The mystery ticketholder is the only Division One winner of draw 4747, which took place on Wednesday, and has not yet stepped forward to claim their windfall.

    Staff at the retail outlet are actively spreading the word among customers to jog the winner’s memory and encourage them to check their entry. Assistant manager Rebecca Schultz told reporters the whole team is buzzing with excitement while they wait for the winner to come forward. “It’s been a few years since this store sold a Division One winning ticket, but we’ve had luck here before – we previously sold two major winning entries, including one worth $13 million,” Schultz shared. “We’re telling every customer who comes through the door to double-check their tickets. A $1 million prize can completely change someone’s life, and we can’t wait for the lucky person to realize what they’ve won.”

    The Lott’s spokesperson Khat McIntyre has issued an urgent appeal for anyone who bought a Weekday Windfall ticket at the Brahma Lodge Topz Shopz location to check their entry as soon as possible. “People often tuck their tickets away and forget about them – that winning slip could be sitting in your car’s glove compartment, buried at the bottom of your purse, or left on your bedside table waiting to be checked,” McIntyre said. The official winning numbers for draw 4747 are 7, 9, 10, 13, 22 and 29, with supplementary numbers 1 and 24.

    This unclaimed windfall marks the 243rd Division One winner across Australia in 2024 so far, and the 21st in the state of South Australia. Lottery officials note that unclaimed prizes are held securely until the winner steps forward, and remind all players that tickets can be checked via the official Lott app, at any retail lottery outlet, or through the organization’s official website.

  • In Zambia, a Shaolin Temple offers a softer face of China

    In Zambia, a Shaolin Temple offers a softer face of China

    Eighteen kilometers north of Zambia’s capital Lusaka, a sprawling cultural complex nestled into the local landscape evokes a striking, unexpected echo of central China. To first-time observers, the golden-roofed pagoda and traditional architecture can almost feel like a mirage – a piece of China transplanted into southern African soil. This is Africa’s very first Shaolin Temple, launched in 2021 to bring the centuries-old Buddhist monastic and martial arts tradition to the continent.

  • ‘So he’s not coming back? …’: Trent Robinson’s cryptic Joseph Manu clue as James Tedesco must tick off one final box for Roosters return

    ‘So he’s not coming back? …’: Trent Robinson’s cryptic Joseph Manu clue as James Tedesco must tick off one final box for Roosters return

    Sydney Roosters head coach Trent Robinson has kept the possibility alive for club legend Joseph Manu to make a shock short-term return to the NRL side in 2025, ahead of the former Golden Boot winner’s permanent move back to the competition with the Chiefs in 2028. Manu departed the Roosters at the end of the 2024 NRL season to pursue international rugby opportunities, and is currently plying his trade with French Top 14 side Racing 92. His contract with the Hamilton-based Chiefs is set to kick off in 2028, following a one-season stint with PNG Rugby in 2027.

    Making his NRL debut with the Roosters in 2016, the 30-year-old developed into one of the world’s top centres during his tenure at the club, winning two premiership titles and earning a place in the hearts of Roosters supporters, who have long held out hope he would one day return to the Sydney-based side.

    Speaking to reporters, Robinson left the door ajar for a potential cameo stint with the Roosters during the 2025 NRL finals series, saying the fan favourite will always be welcome at the club. “So he’s not coming back? I know he’s going to PNG. Who knows what’s going to happen next year?” Robinson teased. “It’s been great for Joey, he’s got some adventures going to Japan and France and now PNG. He deserves everything he gets. Joey is one of our favourites and he’ll always be a Rooster, but his adventure has taken him elsewhere and he’s always welcome through these doors, that’s for sure.”

    Robinson confirmed Manu remains an elite talent capable of playing at the highest level as either a fullback or right centre, and noted that Manu’s Racing 92 season wraps up on June 6, 2026, leaving a window where he would be available to join the Roosters for a late-season run if a deal can be struck. A short-term stint would also allow Manu to reacclimate to NRL rules and physicality ahead of his permanent move to the Chiefs. “I haven’t spoken to Joey about that,” Robinson added. “He likes his European holidays now that he’s got some culture in him, so we don’t know what he’s going to do after that Top 14 season. We’ll see.”

    In other Roosters team news, superstar fullback James Tedesco is on track to make his return to the starting lineup for this Saturday’s clash against the Dolphins, after two recent missed matches where he was named to play but ruled out before kickoff due to a lingering lower-leg injury. Tedesco picked up the unusual injury during the club’s Round 22 victory over the Cowboys, and Robinson says the playmaker will take the field as long as he passes his final training session Friday. “We’re not going to put someone out there that’s not ready to play and play the way that he does. He’s ready to get back and going as long as he ticks off today,” Robinson said. “It’s probably just a non-traditional injury. That would be the simplest way (to explain it). It was a membrane injury rather than a muscle injury, which is getting technical here, but that’s why it was just slightly different about the rehab and how long it was going to take.”

    The Roosters are gearing up for the crucial clash looking to bounce back from an unexpected upset loss to the Wests Tigers. Robinson said an internal review held earlier in the week left him confident the squad is still on the right track heading into the final stretch of the regular season. Lock forward Victor Radley will miss Saturday’s match after sustaining a concussion, but Robinson said the forward could return for the final round of the regular season if he successfully completes the league’s mandatory concussion protocols. “I’m not sure where that sort of came from that he would miss next week as well but it’s progressions as normal like any other one and he’s just got to make sure he keeps ticking off that,” Robinson said. “I can’t say on next week until we get past the next couple of progressions.”

  • St Kilda’s Nicky Winmar set to learn fate for assault on woman in regional Victoria

    St Kilda’s Nicky Winmar set to learn fate for assault on woman in regional Victoria

    One of Australian Football League’s most high-profile former players is preparing to learn his sentence Friday, after being convicted of a brutal assault on a woman at a regional Victorian motel, with prosecutors pushing for immediate jail time and his legal team advocating for a community-focused correction sentence.

    Now 60 years old, Winmar, a 13-season veteran of the elite AFL competition, appeared at Bendigo Magistrates’ Court just before 9:30 a.m. on Friday, avoiding assembled reporters and entering the building through a lesser-used side entrance. The former football star was found guilty in July this year on three separate counts of assault, though he was cleared of a more severe charge of intentionally causing grievous injury.

    The court heard details of the attack, which unfolded in May last year at a motel in northern Victoria. Winmar targeted a woman who cannot be identified for legal reasons, twisting her arm, dragging her across the room by her hair, and slamming her face into a solid door four separate times in a prolonged, violent outburst.

    In early August, prosecutor Annina Tropea made a formal submission to the court urging a custodial jail sentence for Winmar. She described the offending as prolonged, unprovoked, and unrelentingly violent, telling the court that the physical and psychological harm inflicted on the victim would have long-lasting, profound impacts that would continue for years to come.

    Winmar’s legal defense team, led by senior barrister Dermot Dann KC, has pushed back against calls for jail time, arguing that a community corrections order is the far more appropriate sentence for the former athlete. Dann told the court that at the time of the assault, Winmar was experiencing significant personal instability and was effectively unhoused. In the 12 months since the attack, however, the former player has made major, tangible progress to rebuild his life, including giving up alcohol entirely to address underlying personal issues. While Winmar continues to maintain he is innocent of the charges, he has acknowledged the seriousness of the offenses he was convicted of.

    During a pre-sentence hearing held on August 6, presiding Magistrate Trieu Huynh ordered a full assessment to determine whether Winmar was eligible for a community corrections order. At that time, the magistrate explicitly noted he had not yet reached a final decision on sentencing, leaving open the possibility of a standalone community order, or a combined sentence that includes both jail time and a period of community correction. All eyes are now on the Bendigo court as Winmar’s legal team and the prosecution await the magistrate’s final decision on his sentence.

  • UEFA target Infantino for ‘criminal mismanagement’, suspend boycott threat

    UEFA target Infantino for ‘criminal mismanagement’, suspend boycott threat

    The simmering power struggle within global football erupted into open conflict this week, as European football’s governing body UEFA has formally moved forward with plans to pursue criminal mismanagement charges against FIFA President Gianni Infantino, while temporarily stepping back from its threat of a widespread boycott of FIFA tournaments.

    The controversy centers on Infantino’s recently abandoned proposal to introduce private financing into the World Cup tournament structure, a plan that drew fierce backlash from multiple regional football confederations almost immediately after it was unveiled last month. On Thursday, following a gathering of UEFA’s 55 member associations in Monaco, the governing body announced it would provisionally suspend its call for European national teams to withdraw from upcoming FIFA-hosted competitions. The temporary pause offers a brief reprieve for key upcoming events, most notably next month’s women’s Under-20 World Cup hosted by Poland, which would have faced massive disruption if a full boycott went into effect.

    Despite pulling back on the boycott for now, UEFA made clear that the threat remains on the table, with the organization noting its position will be continuously reassessed and can be reversed immediately if changing circumstances warrant it. The so-called “nuclear option” of a boycott is widely credited with forcing Infantino to backtrack on his private financing plan just days after he announced it, a major reversal that left the FIFA president politically weakened.

    Far from stepping down its broader attack on Infantino’s leadership, UEFA has ramped up pressure through the courts. Legal documents reviewed by Agence France-Presse show the organization is actively preparing formal litigation, with plans to file evidence requests in a Florida U.S. court to support a future criminal complaint in Switzerland, where both FIFA and UEFA are headquartered. Under Article 158 of the Swiss Criminal Code, UEFA intends to bring criminal mismanagement charges directly against Infantino, with potential additional charges against other senior FIFA officials and external advisors tied to the proposal.

    The legal push centers on gaining full access to internal records related to FIFA’s proposed Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan, the formal name for the private financing initiative. Key documents include records of a closed-door meeting held at a New York City hotel on the eve of last month’s men’s World Cup final, where a small group of senior FIFA directors were briefed on the proposal. According to reporting from *The New York Times*, two of the five directors in attendance refused to approve the plan — including then-chief operating officer Kevin Lamour, who has since left his position at FIFA.

    UEFA confirmed that once it obtains the requested documentary evidence, it will file the formal criminal complaint in a Swiss court, noting it has already received legal confirmation that the filing meets all procedural requirements to be heard. “On information and belief, Infantino’s actions described herein rise to the level of criminal mismanagement,” UEFA stated in its legal filing.

    The conflict has thrown Infantino’s expected path to re-election into chaos just months ahead of FIFA’s presidential vote, scheduled for next March in Rabat. Prior to the controversy, Infantino was widely expected to win an unopposed fourth and final term, capping a 10-year run at the head of world football that followed a widely praised 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

    UEFA has been the most vocal critic of Infantino’s proposal, labeling it a “shady, opaque backroom deal,” but it has not stood alone in its opposition. The North American confederation CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have joined UEFA in a unified bloc against the plan, issuing a scathing joint letter earlier this month that called into question Infantino’s leadership. “Leadership in football is not a possession. It is not about holding — or demanding — power to be held,” the confederations wrote. “When trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned.”

    CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani is now widely seen as the most credible challenger to Infantino’s presidency, after UEFA chief Aleksander Ceferin ruled himself out of the race. Still, Infantino retains significant support across global football: 2034 World Cup hosts Saudi Arabia publicly backed the FIFA president on Thursday, while the African confederation CAF and South American confederation CONMEBOL have also voiced their support.

    For its part, UEFA remains unwavering in its goal of ending Infantino’s tenure as FIFA president. In its official statement announcing the temporary suspension of the boycott threat, UEFA closed with a clear rebuke of his leadership: “FIFA must once again be governed as an institution serving football – not operate as an instrument of individual power.”