Online Reporter
FIFA have accused UEFA of a “smear campaign against them and their leadership” in a challenge to litigation over president Gianni Infantino’s scrapped plan to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors.
Last week European football’s governing body filed legal papers in the US requesting disclosure of evidence and documents from FIFA, warning they could lodge a criminal complaint in Switzerland.
In a dramatic escalation of the controversy, UEFA accused Infantino of “criminal mismanagement” and “a fraudulently off-market price promoted by [him] for his own benefit” over the now-shelved FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) scheme.
However, world governing body FIFA have now responded with US court filings — seen by the BBC — requesting that permission for access to documents be deferred, or opposed by the end of the month. FIFA claim UEFA’s argument “suffers from a fundamental defect” and “legal deficiencies”.
“UEFA seeks discovery in aid of a foreign criminal proceeding that does not exist and that UEFA admittedly lacks the authority to initiate. Despite that threshold problem, UEFA asks this court to authorise sweeping discovery about the FFE.”
They said they had “made clear” that the creation of FFE was “only a proposal”, adding that they could have only proceeded on the condition that the majority of member associations supported them and “the relevant approvals of the FIFA Council”. 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,” they wrote in the court filing.
They also claimed that UEFA’s “economic motivation” was to prevent smaller countries from having the “financial strength to compete with the European elite”.
“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,” FIFA said.
“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.”
UEFA have declined to comment, although BBC Sport has been told insiders believe that if FIFA have nothing to hide, they should disclose the documents and speed up the legal process. — BBC Sport.
