The FFE controversy that fractured the footballing world has escalated into a US court battle.
FIFA has accused UEFA of attempting to influence next year’s presidential election in the wake of the legal fallout from the scrapped FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) project.
The global governing body is fighting a UEFA request for documents and testimony from two FIFA entities operating in Florida, which UEFA says are needed for a planned criminal complaint in Switzerland involving FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
FIFA has rejected UEFA’s claims, accusing the European football body of making “numerous false or misleading statements” about the organisation and its leadership.
The FFE project caused a stir in the footballing world following the 2026 World Cup. It proposed a specialised subsidiary that would bundle commercial rights connected to the men’s and women’s World Cups and the Club World Cup, opening the door for private investors to acquire equity and provide up to $20bn in investment to FIFA association members.
The governing body halted the plans in July in the wake of significant pushback from confederations, including UEFA, CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) over how the project was developed and presented.
UEFA has since turned to a US federal court to demand discovery from Florida-based subsidiaries FIFA (AMERICAS), Inc. and FWC2026 US, Inc.
The European body alleges that Infantino worked with advisers and financial backers to construct the FFE deal without properly consulting the FIFA Council, regional confederations or the 211 member associations.
The US court will determine whether UEFA can access the records.
FFE valuation becomes key to legal dispute
Court documents submitted by UEFA state that private investors were set to provide $4.2bn for a stake in FFE, valuing the subsidiary at around $20bn. UEFA states that this understated the value of FIFA’s commercial assets and that the proposal wasn’t subjected to a competitive auction or independent valuation.
The governing body contested this assessment in its legal response, adding that UEFA had misunderstood the financial structure of the proposed deal.
“UEFA, whether deliberately or through ignorance, conflates equity value with enterprise value,” FIFA said in its filing.
The organisation said FFE had a starting equity value of $20bn, while its enterprise value was “well over $30bn”.
The governing body also dismissed claims that Infantino stood to gain financially from the deal, stressing that any final FFE arrangement would have required approval from the FIFA Council and its member associations.
The 2027 election
The legal dispute comes at an important juncture in Infantino’s push for a fourth term, with the presidential election scheduled for March 2027.
The FFE controversy has already become intertwined with his campaign, as what started as a plan to sell outside investors’ stakes became an argument over Infantino’s leadership.
Before the proposal was exposed, Infantino was celebrating the 2026 World Cup, which delivered record commercial results. However, some of the decisions that helped secure this achievement, such as expanding to a 48-team tournament, weren’t best received by all stakeholders.
Any reservations people had about his leadership were then compounded by FFE, with several European associations withdrawing their backing for his re-election.
Infantino has tried to repair relationships with confederations after abandoning the plan. One notable moment came when he was pictured next to FIFA General Secretary Mattias Grafström, who previously described the handling of FFE as a “sad and reproachable series of events”.
The governing body has brought the election into its legal response, accusing UEFA of using the court proceedings to influence the vote.
“Just before FIFA’s election, UEFA filed this 1782 Application (and three others) spreading misinformation regarding Mr Infantino,” FIFA said.
