FIFA has gone into a United States federal court to stop UEFA reading its documents, and told the judge that Europe's confederation is running "little more than press releases in further support of [a] smear campaign against FIFA and its leadership".
That is a change of posture. Until now the two bodies have fought this in public statements. Both are now filing against each other in front of American judges, and one of those judges has already ruled.
What is actually in front of the courts
At the end of August, UEFA filed four separate subpoena requests in four different US courts. Each argued the same thing: that it needs discovery because it is contemplating criminal proceedings against the FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, over the FIFA Forward Enterprise plan — the proposal to bring private investment into FIFA that caused the uproar across football this summer.
The requests do not stop at FIFA. They also seek documents and communications from Joshua Kushner, from Thrive Capital, the firm he runs and which had been set to lead the investment, and from JP Morgan.
FIFA asked to intervene in one of the four, the Florida filing. A judge granted that late last week, and its lawyers have now filed in opposition. Its US subsidiary has until 30 September to make that opposition formal.
Three arguments, and one of them is not about law at all
Filing for FIFA, the attorney H Christopher Boehning makes two procedural arguments: that UEFA has no active legal proceedings against FIFA in Switzerland, so there is nothing for the discovery to serve; and that handing the material over would use US public filings to expose information FIFA is obliged to keep confidential under its own governing rules. A third argument holds that UEFA cannot bring a criminal proceeding in Switzerland at all, because FIFA's statutes contractually bind it to arbitration.
The fourth argument is the interesting one, because it is commercial rather than legal. FIFA's filing contends that UEFA's threatened boycott was economically motivated: "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." Money raised through the plan, it argues, would let smaller member associations develop players who then stay and play at home.
To support that, the filing quotes the Cameroon federation president, Samuel Eto'o — but identifies him only as "one of the greatest African players in history", not by the office he holds.
Why an events business should keep watching
Strip out the personalities and this is a dispute about who controls the commercial rights to the largest recurring events on the calendar, now being argued through the discovery rules of a foreign jurisdiction. The practical consequences are unglamorous and real: a fixed date on the calendar at the end of September, an expanding list of parties who must produce documents, and a governing body arguing in open court that its own rules forbid its biggest member from suing it.
Neither Kushner, Thrive nor JP Morgan is accused of wrongdoing. They are being pursued as sources of evidence.
Source
Original summary by Proventier.