Europe’s soccer governing body is asking a U.S. federal court for permission to obtain testimony and documents from FIFA entities in Florida that it could use in a planned criminal complaint against embattled FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
In a court filing on Thursday, UEFA said it is preparing a criminal complaint in Swiss courts against Infantino over possible financial mismanagement related to his failed plan to sell future World Cup profits to private investors, including a company founded by Joshua Kushner.
The now-abandoned plan sought to transfer commercial rights linked to men’s and women’s World Cups and the Club World Cup into a new subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise.
UEFA said it filed a request in the southern Florida district court for authorization of discovery “in a foreign proceeding” against FIFA, which has offices in Miami’s Coral Gables neighborhood.
The organization also said it filed documents in a Manhattan court requesting discovery of potential evidence from the New York investment fund Thrive Capital Management, founded by Kushner.
Kushner is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law. Earlier this month, CBS News reported that Joshua Kushner and former Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger have agreed to purchase the Los Angeles Lakers franchise. The fee is $12.5 billion, sources familiar with the deal told CBS Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Infantino’s close relationship with Mr. Trump drew scrutiny throughout this summer’s World Cup, which was hosted jointly by the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
Thrive and Kushner were to be the anchor investors intending to pay FIFA $4.2 billion for a 20% stake in a subsidiary that would run the soccer body’s commercial events, including the World Cup.
“UEFA and its counsel are contemplating a Swiss criminal proceeding against Infantino and possibly other FIFA officials for criminal mismanagement under Article 158 of the Swiss Criminal Code,” UEFA’s lawyers state in a 56-page document seen by The Associated Press.
The document suggests the $4.2 billion figure could be a “fraudulently off-market price promoted by Infantino for his own benefit.”
UEFA was the first to react to Infantino’s plan, threatening to boycott any FIFA-sponsored competitions, which would have included the next men’s World Cup, which will be hosted in Europe and Africa. Spain, which is a UEFA member team, is the current holder of the World Cup title.
Infantino was forced to scrap the plan on Aug. 1 after his senior adviser, who sat on a White House panel, resigned and Asia’s soccer body joined Europe and North America in opposing it.
UEFA, which issued a blistering statement saying it had lost confidence in Infantino’s leadership at FIFA, first threatened to take legal action on Aug. 3 when it warned FIFA against destroying or hiding any “relevant materials” related to the plan.
“Infantino claimed that the plan would ‘unleash the commercial potential and opportunity that FIFA has,'” UEFA lawyers told the courts. “In truth, it was a vehicle for Infantino and that small circle to acquire a permanent stake in and otherwise profit from FIFA’s most valuable assets to the detriment of FIFA, its members, and other parties within the football family.
“Under the terms Infantino announced, those investors stood to acquire a permanent financial interest in FIFA’s commercial arm for $4.2 billion, implying an absurdly low enterprise value of only approximately $20 billion, a figure that was neither the product of an open, competitive auction, nor tested by any independent valuer.”
Spokespeople for FIFA and Thrive have not responded to requests for comment.
