FIFA’s legal team has accused UEFA of harassing Gianni Infantino, requesting a Florida judge to reject UEFA’s plea for evidence discovery regarding a controversial private investor plan for the World Cup. The court filing, spanning 21 pages and submitted to the Southern District of Florida, argues that UEFA’s insinuations about FIFA’s president seeking personal gains from the now-scrapped project in July are unfounded.
UEFA had sought permission to gather evidence from three different courts, including Manhattan and Miami, as part of a potential criminal complaint against Infantino in Switzerland. FIFA’s lawyers condemned UEFA’s actions as a bad-faith attempt to harass Infantino and influence the upcoming FIFA presidential election in Morocco next March.
The dispute stems from Infantino’s proposal to establish the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) and sell a portion of FIFA’s future commercial rights to investors, including Josh Kushner. UEFA had raised concerns about the pricing and alleged personal interests of Infantino in the project. The plan was met with backlash, leading to internal criticism within FIFA and eventual apologies from Infantino for mishandling the situation.
In a related development, Infantino communicated to FIFA’s member federations about the possibility of increasing payments from the organization’s cash reserves. This move follows calls from critics within UEFA, CONCACAF, and the Asian Football Confederation for FIFA to distribute dividends from its substantial reserves. The FIFA Council is scheduled to convene in October to discuss financial matters and governance reforms in the aftermath of the controversial World Cup sell-off proposal.