UEFA Gianni Infantino tensions have escalated after European football’s governing body asked a US federal court for permission to obtain testimony and documents from FIFA entities in Florida as it considers a criminal complaint against the FIFA president in Switzerland.
UEFA’s ex parte application states that it is in discussion with the FIFA about a case against Infantino and possibly other FIFA officials and advisers on the now-withdrawn FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) initiative. The plan would have been to move the commercial rights of World Cups, both men’s and women’s, and the Club World Cup into a new FIFA subsidiary.
UEFA claims Infantino worked on the idea for over a year with a select group of advisers and investors in secret, without ever consulting FIFA’s Council or regional confederations or its 211 member associations. The organisation claims that the FIFA statutes grant the Council the power with regard to the promotion of the governing body’s commercial rights.
The filing requests discovery of the Florida-based FIFA (AMERICAS), Inc. and FWC2026 US, Inc. The entities would be allowed to present documents and witnesses about the development of the FFE, its structure, its valuation and approval, UEFA said.
UEFA, and interested parties, are ready to file claims in Switzerland based on Article 158 of the Swiss Criminal Code, which relates to criminal mismanagement.
In addition, UEFA claims that Joshua Kushner’s investment vehicle, Thrive Eternal and closely tied to Thrive Capital, were chosen to front a group of investors. The investors were reportedly to be paying $4.2 billion to acquire a stake in FFE, which was valued at about $20 billion.
The filing also identifies former Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei as a key commercial adviser. UEFA, however, says the proposed valuation was far too low and that it did not undergo an open auction or independent valuation.
