By Victor Kanayo
For the second time, FIFA President Gianno Infantino appeared before Swiss authorities on Wednesday morning as he was interviewed as regards a criminal case.
The case according to insidethegames, quoting French newspaper Le Monde borders on “incitement to abuse of authority, violation of official secrecy and obstruction of criminal action” against Infantino.
The investigation by the authorities was launched in July 2020 and Infantino had initially been quizzed in April 2022 by magistrates Ulrich Weder and Hans Maurer, who conducted today’s interview in Zurich, where football’s world governing body is based.
Maurer confirmed that the meeting with Infantino, who had only recently returned from Brazil where he attended the funeral of football legend Pelé, to French newspaper Le Monde but refused to comment further.
The prosecutors are investigating three alleged secret meetings that took place in 2016 and 2017, between Infantino and the former Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber (also under investigation), who was in charge of investigations in connection with FIFA between 2015 and 2019 and who resigned in 2020 after he was implicated in the scandal.
Weder and Maurer also reportedly plan to interview several other officials involved in the alleged meetings, including Lauber’s former spokesman André Marty, and Haut-Valais Rinaldo Arnold, first prosecutor of Swiss canton Haut-Valais and a childhood friend of Infantino.
Former FIFA legal director Marco Villiger, former Swiss Attorney General official Olivier Thormann; and anti-corruption prosecutor Cédric Remund are also expected to be interviewed, Le Monde reported.
It has been alleged that during the secret meetings Infantino was seeking information on investigations into FIFA and its former executives, potentially with the intention to influence the course of those investigations.
It has been alleged that Infantino was trying to find out the state of an investigation regarding the CHF2 million (£1.8 million/$2.2 million/€2.1 million) payment sanctioned by former FIFA President Sepp Blatter to Infantino’s former boss at UEFA Michel Platini, who was seeking to take over as head of the world governing body.
Last July, the Swiss Federal Criminal Court acquitted the two men.
But another trial is due take place as the prosecution and FIFA appealed Blatter and Platini’s acquittal.
Infantino has always claimed that he never asked Arnold to meet Lauber on his behalf and, when the first meeting took place, that as general secretary of UEFA, he had no plans to stand for FIFA President at that time.
Infantino, a member of the International Olympic Committee, will be hoping that the matter is cleared up before March when he is due to stand opposed for re-election as FIFA President as the organisation’s Congress in Rwanda’s capital Kigali.
