UEFA Legal Action Over FFE Plan Valuation and Disclosure Requests
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In a stunning development that overshadowed one of the biggest days in the European football calendar as national football federation and club executives gathered for the Champions League draw in Monte Carlo, Uefa announced it was preparing to make a legal complaint against Infantino in Switzerland alleging “criminal mismanagement” for his role in the failed World Cup sell-off plan.
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BBC SportGiven that Uefa first warned of potential legal action almost a month ago, when it instructed Fifa to retain any "relevant materials" related to the plan, Infantino may well have anticipated Uefa's move.
ESPNUEFA flexes its muscles at Champions League draw in battle with FIFA, Infantino Thursday saw the UEFA Champions League draw take place in Monaco, but the big news beyond the pots involved Europe taking their battle with FIFA president Gianni Infantino into criminal court.
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How concerned might Infantino be? Much may depend on whether US courts side with Uefa over its requests for disclosure of evidence related to the FFE plan. It is seeking information from Fifa, Thrive Capital - the venture capital firm earmarked as the lead investor in FFE - and its founder Josh Kushner, along with former Formula 1 chief Greg Maffei, who is described as "the key commercial adviser" on the proposed deal. In the case of Thrive and Kushner, Uefa's lawyers say they are seeking subpoenas for "the production of documents and communications and for deposition testimony".
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The Guardian SportFrom the moment it became clear Infantino would not resign after withdrawing the FFE plan four days after it became public, Uefa has been pursuing the valuation issue, which if the sale had progressed would have enabled Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital to buy 21% of future Fifa revenues in perpetuity for $4.2bn.
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As one source who questioned Fifa’s valuation said this month: “We need to find out if they were selling the World Cup at a knockdown price.” The intention to bring a criminal complaint is the logical extension of this process.
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BBC SportIt is unclear how long this process could take, or whether Uefa will secure the evidence it needs to support its claim that the World Cup was deliberately undervalued at about £15bn. Nor is it clear whether it will ultimately follow through on its threat to lodge a criminal complaint in Switzerland.
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Uefa has taken the legal route after being thwarted in numerous requests to Fifa to disclose documents. It has made court filings in New York, Florida and Colorado to obtain papers it may submit to Swiss courts seeking criminal charges.
2 details only one outlet reported
Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 BBC Sport Published "On information and belief, Infantino's actions described herein rise to the level of criminal mismanagement."
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02 The Guardian Sport Anyone who interpreted Uefa’s decision to withdraw a proposed boycott of Fifa competitions, revealed by the Guardian on Wednesday, as a backward step in the attempt to remove Gianni Infantino as Fifa’s president has been quickly disabused of that notion.
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Sources (3)
- bbc-sport
- guardian-sport
- espn