Josh Kushner’s Thrive Capital has brought on prominent attorney Alex Spiro to handle its legal issues related to FIFA’s troubled plan to divest a stake in the World Cup, a move initially valued at $20 billion.
Spiro, a partner at the New York firm Quinn Emanuel, has represented high-profile figures such as Elon Musk, Jay-Z, and Alec Baldwin. He revealed in a court filing on Monday that he would be providing legal representation for both Kushner and Thrive.
A spokesperson for Spiro did not provide any further comments.
Recently, UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, requested authorization from a Manhattan federal court to issue a subpoena to Thrive regarding its interactions with FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino. Importantly, neither Thrive nor Kushner is being accused of any misconduct.
UEFA is gearing up to file a lawsuit against Infantino concerning a now-abandoned agreement related to the FIFA Forward Enterprise, which was intended to secure $4.2 billion from Thrive and other investors. This investment would have granted a stake in a newly established for-profit entity that would control FIFA’s lucrative assets, such as TV broadcasting rights, sponsorship agreements, licensing, and ticket sales.
This proposal faced significant opposition, leading UEFA members to vote for a boycott of upcoming international soccer events in protest and advocating for Infantino’s removal from his position.
As a source close to the situation mentioned, “For UEFA, they want to keep this professional and this isn’t really about Kushner; it’s about football and Infantino – the latter has no place in it.”
The source further noted that Kushner’s team has handled communications with UEFA “professionally” and has had direct discussions with UEFA’s President Aleksander Cerefin.
In the court documents filed last week, UEFA’s lawyer stated that neither Kushner nor Thrive is expected to be included as defendants in the case.
Nevertheless, UEFA is pushing for Thrive to provide documents and for Kushner to participate in depositions as part of a potential criminal investigation against Infantino in Switzerland, where both UEFA and FIFA are based.
UEFA’s legal team has claimed that Infantino, who is running for re-election as FIFA president in March, engaged in “criminal mismanagement” of the organization. They also expressed a lack of confidence in his leadership as of August 1.
Kushner finally broke his silence about the deal with a detailed statement on Monday, saying, “While we stand behind the motivations of FFE, we failed to appreciate the political dynamics of global football, and the lengths some would go to. Had we known what this would devolve into, we would not have gotten involved.”
He expressed that the deal was merely a proposal subject to a vote by all Member Associations, emphasizing it wasn’t a determined obligation.
Kushner also pointed out, “Money in football has historically been concentrated amongst a small group of countries. The idea behind FFE was to direct more capital and equity equally amongst all 211 member countries, providing significantly more investment to underdeveloped nations to nurture local talent, support grassroots football, enhance the fan experience, and ultimately grow the global game everywhere.”
