Paris (AFP)
Gianni Infantino will continue to exercise his functions as president of Fifa, the instance announced on Sunday, despite criminal proceedings in Switzerland targeting the boss of world football amid suspicion of collusion with the resigned chief of the Swiss federal prosecutor's office.
"Fifa and the president of Fifa deny any insinuation or allusion leading to believe that the president of Fifa tried to exert an undue influence on the Attorney General of the Confederation", indicated Sunday the world body.
"The FIFA president will continue to fully exercise his functions within Fifa and assume his responsibilities. He will continue to provide cooperation to the authorities in Switzerland and around the world, as he has done. always held, "added Fifa.
Gianni Infantino has been targeted since Thursday by criminal proceedings in Switzerland, the extraordinary federal prosecutor Stefan Keller considering that there were "elements of reprehensible behavior in connection with the meeting between the attorney general Michael Lauber, the president of the FIFA and the first prosecutor of Haut-Valais ", Rinaldo Arnold.
The offenses concerned are "abuse of authority", "violation of official secrecy" and "obstruction of criminal proceedings".
Criminal proceedings were also opened against Rinaldo Arnold, while Stefan Keller asked "the competent parliamentary committees to authorize the opening of criminal proceedings against" Mr. Lauber, an obligatory passage in Switzerland when it is a question of investigating "members of authorities or magistrates elected by the Federal Assembly".
Former boss of the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office, Michael Lauber resigned on July 24. He had been in the crosshairs for many months for his management of the procedures relating to the "Fifagate" which he supervised.
Several informal meetings between this magistrate and Gianni Infantino, which took place between 2016 and 2017, had been revealed in the press and in particular by the Football Leaks in 2018, arousing suspicions of collusion.
In the fall of 2015, the former chairman of the body Sepp Blatter and the then president of UEFA, Michel Platini, were provisionally suspended for 90 days by the Fifa Ethics Commission , a few days after being heard within the framework of an investigation of the Swiss justice - Blatter as defendant and Platini as assisted witness -, for a payment of 2 M CHF (1.8 M EUR) from the first to the second.
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