FIFA accused European soccer body UEFA of a "smear campaign" in a court filing Thursday concerning FIFA president Gianni Infantino's failed plan to sell stakes in the World Cup and other competitions. Last week, UEFA filed requests for discovery of evidence connected to Infantino's proposal in three U.S. courts.

"While these applications are styled as legal pleadings with captions and docket numbers, they are little more than press releases in further support of UEFA's smear campaign against FIFA and its leadership," FIFA said in a filing in U.S. District Court in Colorado. FIFA's filing on Thursday was a motion to intervene, asking that the discovery process be deferred or dropped.

One of UEFA's discovery requests was filed in the Southern District of New York and seeks disclosure of documents from Josh Kushner and his investment firm Thrive Capital Management. Thrive was involved in Infantino's FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal to sell stakes in the World Cup to private equity for $4.2 billion. FIFA withdrew the proposal on Aug. 1 after intense pushback. Other filings were made in Florida and Colorado against adviser Greg Maffei.

In a statement to Axios, Kushner defended the proposal but said he did not anticipate the pushback. UEFA said it sought documents for potential criminal proceedings in Switzerland. FIFA argued UEFA's motivation was "to prevent smaller countries from having the financial strength to compete with the European elite," and that UEFA's request "suffers from a fundamental defect."