Fifa boss Gianni Infantino suspected of having intervened to stop an investigation

Fifa president Gianni Infantino is said to have intervened with the Swiss attorney general to drop an investigation against him, the Swiss daily said on Monday. Geneva Tribune. The Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Confederation (MPC) began to investigate in early 2016, shortly after his election as head of Fifa, about the award by Gianni Infantino of a television rights contract to an offshore company, while the leader was still the chief legal officer of UEFA.

According to Geneva Tribune, “Worried” about this investigation, Infantino had then written to his childhood friend, Rinaldo Arnold, who had become a prosecutor in Haut-Valais, the region of origin of the two men. “I will try to explain to the MPC that it is in my interest that everything be cleared up as soon as possible, that it be made clear that I have nothing to do with this matter,” he wrote in an email quoted by the newspaper. Arnold, who had already helped organize a first meeting between Attorney General Michael Lauber and Infantino, replied: “What is important is the meeting in two weeks. If you want, I can accompany you again. “

“Criminal Act”

The meeting took place on April 22, 2016, the newspaper said, adding that its content remains “mysterious” and that the MPC “refuses to talk about it”. When questioned by the AFP, the MPC declined to comment on the article in the Geneva Tribune.

Fifa said in a statement Monday evening that the content of the private email sent by Infantino to “a close friend” was “taken out of context entirely with the sole purpose of misleading the reader.” The email was obtained by “hacking, which is illegal and a criminal offense,” the court said. “Not only did Mr. Infantino have no reason to lie in this email, but the email never indicated that Mr. Infantino wanted to” blank his name, “” added Fifa.

A “lie”, according to Fifa

The proceedings also explained that “some media” reported at the time that Mr. Infantino was the subject of a “criminal investigation” in connection with “a very minor contract relating to television rights in Ecuador for UEFA competitions ”. For Fifa, “it was a clear and utter lie, the sole purpose of which was to damage Mr. Infantino’s reputation.” The international federation again explained that the meetings between Infantino and the public prosecutor’s office were intended to show that the federation was “ready to collaborate with Swiss justice”.

In November 2017, “after a third informal meeting” between Infantino and Lauber, the MPC ended the investigation into the contract signed by Infantino at UEFA. The Geneva Tribune also reports repeated telephone contact between Swiss prosecutors and FIFA lawyers. “Prosecutors have apparently helped Fifa formulate its demands” as the complainant, reports the newspaper, an attitude which “seems incompatible with the duty of impartiality of the MPC”.

According to a report by the Supervisory Authority of the Swiss Prosecutor’s Office (AS-MPC) quoted in early March by the newspaper The world and obtained by the AFP, a relative of Infantino also allegedly sought confidential information relating to an investigation into the proceedings in July 2015, seven months before the leader’s election to the presidency.

–