FIFA has accused UEFA of running a “misinformation campaign” to influence its presidential election, as Gianni Infantino seeks a fourth term amid an escalating dispute over the governing body’s abandoned investment plan.
The accusation was made in a filing urging a US federal court in Florida to reject UEFA’s request for documents and testimony relating to the proposed transfer of World Cup commercial rights into a subsidiary known as FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE).
UEFA applied last month for permission to gather evidence for a planned criminal complaint in Switzerland concerning the proposal, which was dropped in July after opposition from several football confederations.
FIFA said UEFA’s legal submission contained “numerous false or misleading statements about FIFA and Infantino”. It rejected the suggestion that the president had sought to profit personally from the scheme.
“With no basis whatsoever, UEFA suggests that Mr Infantino sought to profit personally from the FFE proposal,” FIFA said in its filing in the Southern District of Florida.
The organisation said the plan would have required approval from FIFA’s member associations and its council, with both bodies overseeing the subsidiary.
“UEFA’s suggestions that Mr Infantino violated any law or ethical principle are categorically without merit,” FIFA added.
Dispute over value of World Cup rights
UEFA has alleged that Infantino developed the proposal privately with a small group of advisers and investors, without consulting the FIFA Council, regional confederations or member associations.
It claimed investors would have paid 4.2 billion US dollars for a stake in FFE, valuing the business at about 20 billion dollars, and argued that the figure significantly undervalued FIFA’s commercial rights.
UEFA also alleged that the proposal had not been tested through an open auction or assessed by an independent valuer. FIFA rejected that interpretation, saying UEFA had confused the value of shareholders’ equity with the wider value of the business.
FIFA said the initial equity valuation was 20 billion dollars, while documents circulated to member associations put FFE’s enterprise value at more than 30 billion dollars.
The project was abandoned in July after objections from UEFA, the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football and the Asian Football Confederation. The dispute has since prompted calls for changes to FIFA’s governance.
Infantino wrote to all 211 member associations last week proposing an independent review of the organisation’s decision-making processes.
FIFA said UEFA’s court filings, submitted shortly before the March election, represented an attempt to influence the contest. “This court should reject any attempt to influence FIFA’s presidential election based on these grounds,” it said.
Infantino said on Monday that he was willing to discuss the distribution of millions of dollars to FIFA’s member associations. The exact amounts for individual countries are expected to be considered at the FIFA Council’s meeting on October 15.
