Fifa accuses Uefa of harassment and of trying to influence the March 2027 election

In a 26-page response filed with a Florida court on Monday and made public, Fifa argues that Uefa is there to harass it rather than to gather evidence, and asks the court to throw out the request Uefa filed in late August against the organisation’s American subsidiaries.

That request, 60 pages long, sought internal documents ahead of a complaint in Switzerland. In it, Uefa accuses Gianni Infantino of “criminal mismanagement” and of promoting, for his own benefit, a price “fraudulently off-market” on the plan to open Fifa’s competitions to private capital. Fifa’s lawyers dismiss the suggestion that Infantino stood to gain personally from the Fifa Forward Enterprise proposal, and say Uefa is confusing equity value with enterprise value.

Stakes in the World Cup for sale

The Fifa Forward Enterprise plan would have moved the commercial revenues and rights of the World Cup into a company open to private investors, with stakes for sale. So Foot puts the valuation near $20bn, a figure the BBC does not repeat. Uefa rejected it, Concacaf and the AFC followed, and the project is dead. Debbie Hewitt, chair of the Football Association and a Fifa vice-president, still wants every document published and an independent review of the whole affair.

Everything points to March 2027

Fifa asks the court to “reject any attempt to influence FIFA’s presidential election based on these grounds”. The vote is set for 18 March 2027: Infantino is running for a fourth term, with no declared rival so far, and candidacies close on 18 November. Around that date the calendar fills up: a Fifa Council on 15 October; a call from Aleksander Čeferin and Victor Montagliani for at least $10 million to each of the 211 member associations; reserves the rebels put at about $6 billion. In Fifa’s telling, what happens in Florida is really about March 2027.