A proposed USD 4.2 billion investment deal involving FIFA ’s most valuable competitions has now grown into a full-blown legal dispute between world football’s governing body and UEFA.
On Thursday, FIFA accused European football’s governing body of launching a “smear campaign” against president Gianni Infantino, at a time when UEFA is seeking access to documents linked to a plan that was withdrawn within days of becoming public.
The dispute centres on FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a proposal to sell private-equity stakes in the World Cup and other competitions. Thrive Capital Management, the investment firm led by Josh Kushner, was involved in the plan. In its own court filings, UEFA argued that the proposed arrangement would allow Infantino and a small group around him to benefit from FIFA’s most valuable assets at the expense of the organisation and its members. The governing body also claimed that UEFA’s opposition was driven by a desire to prevent smaller football nations from gaining the financial strength to compete with Europe’s established elite. In a separate statement last week, UEFA called for an independent external review into the origins of FFE. It also warned that, should Infantino seek re-election at next year’s FIFA Congress, it would work with other confederations to offer member associations an alternative focused on integrity, accountability and institutional reform.
FIFA withdrew the proposal on August 1 following intense opposition.
“While these applications are styled as legal pleadings with captions and docket numbers, they are little more than press releases in further support of UEFA’s smear campaign against FIFA and its leadership,” FIFA said in a filing in U.S. District Court in Colorado, according to ESPN. ‘ The European body has said the documents could be used in preparing potential criminal proceedings in Switzerland. “Infantino claimed that the plan would ‘unleash the commercial potential and opportunity that FIFA has,'” UEFA lawyers told the courts. “In truth, it was a vehicle for Infantino and that small circle to acquire a permanent stake in and otherwise profit from FIFA’s most valuable assets to the detriment of FIFA, its members, and other parties within the football family,” the lawyers added.
