By Sandra Kenneth
Global football governing body FIFA has launched a scathing counter-attack against UEFA, branding European football’s executive body as engaging in a “smear campaign” and a “fishing expedition” as a legal row over a failed World Cup privatization deal escalates.
The feud stems from FIFA’s controversial proposal, unveiled in July, to sell equity stakes in the World Cup to private investors. Facing fierce opposition from confederations and a boycott threat from UEFA, FIFA quickly scrapped the initiative. However, UEFA is now laying the groundwork for a criminal mismanagement case against FIFA President Gianni Infantino in Switzerland.
To gather evidence, UEFA filed petitions in three US state courts seeking forced disclosures of internal documents from FIFA and potential investment partners, including Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital.
In formal legal filings contesting the requests, FIFA urged US judges to reject the applications, dismissing them as political stunts.
“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 stated in court documents reviewed by reporters.
FIFA’s legal defense rests on several key arguments:
- Lack of Ongoing Proceedings: FIFA asserts that UEFA has no legal basis to demand internal communications since no formal criminal charges currently exist in Switzerland or elsewhere.
- Lack of Standing: The filings maintain that UEFA suffered no financial damage from the aborted plan and therefore lacks standing to demand disclosures.
- Jurisdiction Bypass: FIFA accuses UEFA of improperly side-stepping Swiss judicial jurisdiction by filing directly in US courts.
- Protection of Proprietary Data: Releasing internal emails and executive correspondence involving Infantino would compromise sensitive commercial intelligence.
The dispute highlights a growing rift ahead of FIFA’s upcoming presidential election next March, where Infantino originally expected to run unopposed. UEFA, supported by CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), has openly sought to block Infantino’s fourth term, terming the aborted investor proposal a “shady, opaque backroom deal.”
With UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin ruling out a run, CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani has emerged as the primary potential challenger to lead the global body.
