A judge in Manhattan rejected motions by two FIFA subsidiaries seeking to block UEFA from obtaining evidence tied to FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s failed World Cup investor plan.
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A judge in Manhattan denied requests by FIFA subsidiaries to block European soccer body UEFA from seeking discovery in a case related to Gianni Infantino’s failed plan for a private World Cup investor.
UEFA filed court documents in August as part of a broader effort to remove Infantino as FIFA president, which the materials describe as potentially including a criminal complaint against him personally in Switzerland alleging financial mismanagement.
In the Manhattan district court on Thursday, motions to intervene by two FIFA subsidiaries—“FIFA (AMERICAS) INC.” and “FWC2026 US, INC.”—failed because the judge found they did not have a “direct, substantial and legally protectable interest” in the proceedings.
In an eight-page ruling, Judge Jeannette Vargas wrote that the record did not indicate that the “US FIFA parties, or even FIFA itself,” would be parties in contemplated criminal proceedings, and that the subsidiaries had not alleged facts suggesting they would be defendants in such a proceeding.
FIFA said the ruling was limited to its own subsidiaries and that the court “has not addressed the merits of UEFA’s application and no documents are required to be produced,” according to the soccer body.
The dispute focuses on UEFA’s efforts to obtain evidence from Joshua Kushner’s New York investment firm Thrive and FIFA advisors JP Morgan concerning a sell-off plan tied to the World Cup in July that sparked backlash in global soccer.
UEFA’s discovery requests have extended to multiple states, and FIFA said in September that the court actions in Florida—where FIFA has offices in a Miami suburb—were harassment targeting Infantino.
The private investor plan was dropped within days after the backlash and has been described as the biggest crisis for Infantino during his nearly 11-year FIFA presidency.
Infantino plans to seek re-election in March and will need to pass an eligibility and integrity check by a FIFA-appointed panel.
The materials say Thrive and Kushner were intended to be the anchor investors in a secretive plan called FIFA Forward Enterprise, with investors set to pay FIFA $4.2 billion for a permanent stake of more than 20% in a subsidiary intended to run FIFA tournaments including the World Cup.
The plan also offered 211 FIFA member federations $20 million each to approve the project, and FIFA’s cash reserves rose to more than $5 billion after the men’s World Cup co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico ended in July.
Infantino faces at least one election challenger: veteran Japanese official Kohzo Tashima, who has been a colleague of Infantino’s on FIFA’s 37-member ruling council since 2016.
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