Lawyers acting for Fifa have challenged Uefa’s discovery application submitted to a US federal court earlier this week. They described Uefa’s legal action as essentially a series of public statements intended to advance a campaign against Fifa and its senior officials, and asked the judge overseeing the matter to reject the application.
The submission asks that Fifa US, a subsidiary of Fifa, be formally allowed to oppose the discovery application by 30 September.
At the end of August, Uefa submitted four separate subpoena applications in different US courts. It argued that discovery was necessary while it considered pursuing criminal action against Fifa president Gianni Infantino over the proposed Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) initiative, which generated widespread controversy throughout football. The applications sought documents and communications involving Fifa, Joshua Kushner and Thrive Capital, the investment company he manages that was expected to serve as the principal investor in Infantino’s proposal. Uefa also requested material from other connected organisations, including JP Morgan.
Fifa applied to participate in one of the four cases, which was filed in Florida. A judge approved that application late last week.
H Christopher Boehning, an attorney representing Fifa, argued that discovery should either be postponed or partially rejected because Uefa has no ongoing legal case against Fifa in Switzerland. The submission further claimed that the process could enable confidential information, protected under Fifa’s governing regulations, to be revealed through US court records.
The filing also outlines the development of the FFE proposal and claims that Uefa’s warning that it could boycott Fifa tournaments in response to the plan was driven by financial interests.
According to the document, stronger football development in emerging nations would increase international competition, weaken Uefa’s market influence and create greater competition for its leading tournaments. It added that funding smaller Fifa member associations through FFE could encourage more players to represent their countries of origin and compete in domestic leagues instead of moving abroad.
To reinforce this argument, the filing cites Cameroon football federation president Samuel Eto’o, describing him only as one of the finest African players of all time.
The filing additionally maintains that Uefa lacks the power to begin criminal proceedings in Switzerland because Fifa’s statutes contractually require disputes between the organisations to be settled through arbitration.
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