Sept 10 (Reuters) – UEFA urged a U.S. court on Thursday to reject an attempt by FIFA’s American subsidiaries to intervene in its bid to obtain evidence for a potential Swiss criminal case against FIFA President Gianni Infantino over his abandoned World Cup commercial-rights plan.
In a filing in Manhattan federal court, European soccer’s governing body said FIFA (Americas) Inc and FWC2026 US Inc were improperly trying to act as stand-ins for FIFA and Infantino, neither of whom has sought to join the case.
UEFA said its request under a U.S. discovery law seeks documents and testimony from Thrive Capital Management and its founder Joshua Kushner, who it says may hold information about the proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise transaction.
The plan, which Infantino withdrew on August 1 after a backlash from soccer bodies and other critics, envisaged selling a permanent stake in commercial and operational rights connected to the World Cup and other FIFA events to private investors.
UEFA CONSIDERING CRIMINAL COMPLAINT AGAINST INFANTINO
UEFA has said it is considering filing a criminal complaint in Switzerland alleging criminal mismanagement by Infantino and potentially other FIFA officials. Infantino and FIFA have not been charged with wrongdoing.
FIFA accused UEFA last week of running a “smear campaign” and characterized the discovery applications as a fishing expedition intended to damage FIFA and its leadership.
FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Infantino has denied doing anything wrong.
In Thursday’s response, UEFA said the subsidiaries had no direct legal interest in the New York proceeding because they were not targets of the contemplated Swiss case and were not recipients of the proposed subpoenas.
It said the confidentiality concerns cited by the U.S. subsidiaries belonged, if to anyone, to their Swiss parent, FIFA. UEFA also argued that Thrive and Kushner already have lawyers who can challenge any subpoenas after they are served.
Thrive did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Thrive founder Kushner is the brother of Jared Kushner, son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump.
UEFA said granting the subsidiaries a role before the court rules would depart from the usual process for requests under Section 1782, which are commonly granted initially without opposition and then tested through motions to quash.
The European body argued that the subsidiaries’ intervention would create unnecessary delay by adding another round of merits briefing before UEFA could seek the records.
The court has not yet ruled on either UEFA’s discovery application or the intervention motion.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll; Editing by Tom Hogue)
