World governing body wants court to oppose application for order to force president to disclose material relating to World Cup sell-off plan

Football’s world governing body Fifa has accused Uefa of a “smear campaign” against it in a further escalation of the sport’s civil war.

Uefa, the European governing body, has lodged applications with three courts in the US to seek orders to force Fifa president Gianni Infantino and his collaborators to disclose all material relating to the doomed Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan to sell stakes in the World Cup.

The disclosure applications have been lodged in the US, with Uefa warning in one of the filings that they, and other interested parties, “are preparing to bring criminal claims in Switzerland against Infantino and possibly other Fifa officials and advisers”. There is a belief that a lengthy legal process could be avoided if Fifa agrees to swiftly disclose the documents.

Fifa, however, has this week responded with its own filing, requesting that the court should “oppose” the application.

“While these [Uefa] 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,” says the court filing, which was first reported by The Athletic.

Fifa also says that FFE was “only a proposal” and would have required support from a majority of member associations as well as certain approvals by the Fifa Council. It also argues that it would have helped develop football in less-developed countries.

“Rather than participate in that democratic process, Uefa issued a press release — the beginning of a weeks-long smear campaign against Fifa and its leadership,” says the court filing.

“If soccer is strengthened in the developing world, global competition increases, which ultimately reduces Uefa’s market power and provides more competition for its flagship tournaments.

“By raising funds to allow some of Fifa’s smaller member associations to better develop soccer, FFE would lead to more players from those nations choosing to represent their countries of origin and playing in their home leagues rather than playing abroad.”

The Uefa submission said that it was seeking to establish “whether the $4.2bn price” agreed by the Fifa president “reflected an arm’s-length valuation of Fifa’s commercial rights or, as the public record indicates, a fraudulently off-market price promoted by Infantino for his own benefit”.

The document states such offences are punishable with a prison sentence of up to five years.

Uefa also sought orders against Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital Management, JP Morgan and Greg Maffei, all of whom were announced last month to potentially be involved in the FFE scheme.

The Uefa filing also states: “Uefa has nine seats on the Fifa Council, which is the governing body that Fifa’s statutes vest with exclusive authority to decide how Fifa’s commercial rights are to be promoted.

“Nevertheless, on July 28, 2026, without consulting the Fifa council, Uefa, or any of the other confederations, or any of the 211 Fifa member associations, Infantino, purportedly acting on behalf of Fifa, publicly announced a plan to place the commercial rights to the men’s and women’s World Cups and the Club World Cup into a new subsidiary: ‘Fifa Forward Enterprise’ (‘FFE’).”

Kushner released a statement on Monday, saying that Thrive “failed to appreciate the political dynamics of global football” and “would not have gotten involved” had they known “what this would devolve into”. Uefa and Fifa have been approached for comment.