Infantino to face inquiry over secret lawyer talks
FIFA’S reputation was dealt another blow yesterday as it emerged president Gianni Infantino faces a criminal inquiry into a secret meeting he held with the Swiss lawyer in charge of investigating corruption after Sepp Blatter’s departure.
Swiss special prosecutor Stefan Keller has concluded there is enough evidence to take the case to court after investigating the circumstances of Infantino’s clandestine meeting with Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber, who was heading an investigation into the 2015 corruption scandal which badly hit FIFA’s credibility.
Last Friday, the supervisory body that oversees Lauber’s office ruled that the meeting ‘seriously violated his official and legal duties’, prompting the lawyer to stand down from his post. But the Swiss government has confirmed that Keller is pursuing a criminal inquiry into Infantino as well. Keller has uncovered ‘elements that make up reprehensible behaviour’, according to a statement from the Swiss authority overseeing the federal prosecutors office.
An internal disciplinary case against Lauber identified a meeting with Infantino in June 2017 at which the prosecutor took no notes. Both men later insisted they could not recall their discussion at what was their third meeting in 15 months. Keller has already found possible offences could include abuse of public office by Lauber, breach of official secrecy and ‘assisting offenders’.
Infantino’s involvement in FIFA’s attempts to restore credibility has been called into question before. In 2017, the president ensured the chairmen of the organisation’s investigatory and judicial committees — Hans-Joachim Eckert and Cornel Borbely — were removed from their posts.
Both had wanted to serve another four-year term to complete their work investigating hundreds of cases. The move was seen in part as a response to a FIFA ethics committee decision to investigate Infantino in the previous year.