The UEFA Champions League draw in Monaco made headlines on Thursday, but it was the legal offensive launched by European football's governing body against FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino that dominated the conversation.

UEFA escalated its long-running dispute with FIFA by taking the conflict into criminal court — a significant step that signals just how deeply fractured the relationship between European football and FIFA's leadership has become.

The draw itself, which determined the knockout-stage fixtures for Europe's premier club competition, was overshadowed by the scale of the institutional battle playing out at the highest levels of world football governance.