FIFA has alleged that UEFA has a “misinformation campaign” and sought to impact the organisation’s president race, as it asked a US court to turn down a discovery request in connection to the failed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) initiative.
UEFA had requested the US federal court to allow them to retrieve documents and testify from FIFA entities based in Florida for an upcoming criminal complaint in Switzerland about FIFA president Gianni Infantino and the suggested transfer of World Cup commercial rights to FFE.
FIFA denied the claims made by UEFA, claiming its legal submission included “a number of false or misleading statements” about the organisation and Infantino.
A separate report also alleged that Infantino was attempting to monetize the scheme for his own gain. The federation also dismissed those claims, saying that FFE would still have needed the go-ahead from member associations of FIFA and the FIFA Council.
A huge dispute revolved around the FFE valuation. UEFA said investors would have paid 4.2 billion US dollars for a stake in the subsidiary, which was valued at around 20 billion US dollars by UEFA, and argued the commercial rights had been undervalued by FIFA.
FIFA challenged this, arguing the $20b was the value of the equity, not the enterprise value, which was “well over $30 billion”.
FFE project was finally discarded in July due to objections by different confederations on account of consultation and governance issues.
In the event that Infantino sought another term in March 2027, the FIFA legal team blamed UEFA for seeking the judicial process to interfere in the presidential elections and implored the Florida court to turn down the discovery demand.
UEFA said it was not available to comment on the latest submission.
