FIFA Defends Infantino Over Alleged Criminal Wrongdoing

FIFA have denied any involvement in criminal wrongdoing on the part of President Gianni Infantino. Recall that prosecutors in Switzerland have launched legal proceedings against Infantino over a meeting with Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber. Both men have denied any wrongdoing.

“There was and is absolutely no reason to open any investigation because nothing remotely criminal has happened and there is nothing at all to suggest any form of criminal wrongdoing,” FIFA said in a statement on Sunday.

“FIFA is convinced that at the end of the current investigation will be confirmed that the FIFA president did not do anything wrong by performing his fiduciary duties and meeting the attorney general of Switzerland.”

It will also be recalled that a court recently concluded that Lauber had both failed to declare a meeting with Infantino and misled overseers while he himself investigated corruption allegations that in part saw former president Sepp Blatter resigned in 2015.

Special prosecutor Stefan Keller, who was brought in earlier this month to investigate criminal complaints against Lauber and Infantino, believes he has found indications that a meeting between the two may have constituted or led to criminal conduct.

The meeting in question took place at a hotel in Bern back in 2017, their third in a 15-month period, and Keller found evidence that offenses could include but are not limited to abuse of public office, breach of official secrecy, “assisting offenders” and “incitement to these acts.”