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FIFA and UEFA have escalated their dispute over Gianni Infantino’s abandoned $4.2bn Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) investment plan, with world football’s governing body accusing UEFA of conducting a “smear campaign” against its leadership.
The row comes as UEFA pursues access to FIFA documents in a US court. At the centre of the legal battle are allegations over the valuation and handling of the proposed deal. UEFA has accused Infantino of “criminal mismanagement” and a “fraudulently off-market price promoted by [him] for his own benefit”.
FIFA has asked the US court to defer or reject UEFA’s request, arguing that its case “suffers from a fundamental defect” and “legal deficiencies”. It also said UEFA was seeking extensive evidence for “a foreign criminal proceeding that does not exist”.
FIFA said FFE was only a proposal and could have gone ahead only with majority support from its member associations and the approval of the FIFA Council. It accused UEFA of refusing to participate in that process, describing the organisation’s actions as “the beginning of a weeks-long smear campaign against Fifa and its leadership”.
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The proposed transaction involved US venture capitalist Joshua Kushner and his company, Thrive, which had been in talks to lead a $4.2bn investment for a 20% stake in a new FIFA commercial subsidiary. The plan was abandoned in July following intense opposition after details emerged.
UEFA has separately asked a New York court to order Kushner and US financier Greg Maffei to provide testimony and documents. It alleges that FIFA deliberately valued the World Cup commercial business at about £15bn, a figure “that was neither the product of an open, competitive auction, nor tested by any independent valuer”.
Kushner has since expressed regret over his involvement, saying: “While we stand behind the motivations of FFE, we failed to appreciate the political dynamics of global football, and the lengths some would go to… had we known what this would devolve into, we would not have gotten involved.” The dispute comes as Infantino faces calls to step down, with three confederations reported to be backing moves against the FIFA president.
