FIFA slams criminal proceedings against Infantino
Global football governing body FIFA has described the decision by Swiss authorities to open criminal proceedings against its president Gianni Infantino last week as grotesque and absurd.
Swiss authorities said last Thursday that proceedings had been launched against the current FIFA boss by a special prosecutor looking into meetings he had with Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber. Lauber and Infantino have already denied wrongdoing.
鈥淭here is no factual basis whatsoever for this criminal investigation,鈥 FIFA deputy general secretary Alasdair Bell told a video news conference yesterday.
鈥淭here is no description of criminal conduct of any kind that has been communicated to FIFA. There is something a little grotesque and unfair in all this because we are 100 percent confident there will never be a criminal charge against the FIFA president,鈥 he added.
鈥淏ut we have a situation where, objectively, there is damage to both FIFA and the FIFA president simply because of the existence of this investigation.鈥
The AB-BA watchdog, which oversees the Attorney General鈥檚 office, or OAG, said on Thursday that special prosecutor Stefan Keller had found indications of criminal conduct related to their meetings. Keller was appointed in June to review complaints against the two men and others. The proceedings concerned abuse of public office, breach of official secrecy, and assisting offenders, it said.
鈥淚f someone opens a criminal investigation there needs to be a good reason and we don鈥檛 have any reasons,鈥 said Bell. 鈥淲e have some anonymous complaints but we don鈥檛 know who made them.鈥
FIFA said that, at the time of the meetings held in 2016 and 2017, the OAG was conducting investigations in more than 20 cases related to a scandal in which FIFA became embroiled before Infantino was elected president in 2016.
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