Fifa accuses Uefa of ‘smear campaign’ against Gianni Infantino

Fifa has accused Uefa of a “smear campaign against it and its leadership” in a dramatic escalation of the public spat between the two football bodies.

Last week the news broke that Uefa is preparing to bring a criminal complaint against Fifa president Gianni Infantino following his failed plan to sell off commercial stakes in the World Cup to private investors, which was met with widespread outcry and threatened to spark a civil war within the sport. That shows no sign of abating despite Uefa climbing down from a poposed boycott of the World Cup and other Fifa competitions.

A 56-page document, filed by Uefa’s lawyers in a federal court in the United States and seen by The Independent, declares that Uefa are “preparing to bring criminal claims in Switzerland against Infantino” for “criminal mismanagement” following Fifa’s now scrapped Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal.

Now Fifa has retaliated. Several outlets reported on Thursday that football’s governing body had lodged court filings in the US requesting that a court defer the granting of access to documents or oppose Uefa’s application entirely by the end of September.

Fifa’s motion to intervene argued that the creation of FFE was “only a proposal” which would only have been brought into effect with the consent of the majority of Fifa’s member associations and the “relevant approvals” of the Fifa Council.

It wrote: “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.”

The filing also accused Uefa’s legal proceedings of containing “legal deficiencies” and accused the European body of acting out of desire to prevent other countries gaining the “financial strength to compete with the European elite”.

It said: “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.

“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.

“All of this would erode UEFA’s dominance over other regions of the world.”

Uefa’s court filing attacked the FFE proposal as “a vehicle for Infantino and a small circle to acquire a permanent stake and otherwise profit from Fifa’s most valuable assets.”

The document has been filed in Florida, where two Fifa entities – Fifa Americas and FWC2026 US – are based, and requests documents and communications from both organisations concerning the “origination, development, internal discussion, and public announcement of the FFE proposal, including Fifa’s internal communications and discussions”.