Lausanne (AFP)

The president of Fifa, Gianni Infantino, targeted since Thursday by criminal proceedings in Switzerland, "will respect any decision of the Ethics Commission" of the body, assured Monday the Deputy Secretary General of the International Football Federation.

"I have no doubts that Gianni Infantino will respect any decision of the Ethics Commission," said Alasdair Bell, for whom there is however "no evidence of criminal or unethical behavior. ".

Sunday, Fifa had indicated that its president would continue to exercise his functions despite the criminal proceedings against him.

Fifa did not indicate on Monday whether or not the Ethics Commission, in charge of the internal justice of the instance, has already opened proceedings against Mr. Infantino.

The Ethics Commission "will have to conduct its own analysis and make its own decision (...) In each case, it must assess whether there are serious elements that could justify a suspension," said Mr. Bell.

Asked about the absence of the president of Fida during this videoconference, Mr. Bell assured that Gianni Infantino would be "available and will speak to the media in order to clear his name". "Fifa like Mr. Infantino have nothing to hide, we want to be transparent", added the Scottish lawyer.

Mr. Infantino has been targeted since Thursday by criminal proceedings in Switzerland, the extraordinary federal prosecutor considering that there were "elements of reprehensible behavior in connection with the meeting between the Attorney General Michael Lauber, the president of 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".

On Monday, Mr. Bell reiterated that there was "no factual element" to justify the initiation of this procedure, "unless meeting the prosecutor has become a crime".

Mr. Lauber, who resigned on July 24, 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.

The Fifa Ethics Commission has in recent years pronounced several provisional suspensions against senior leaders targeted by legal proceedings.

Thus in the fall of 2015, the former president of the body Sepp Blatter and the then president of UEFA, Michel Platini, had been suspended as a precaution for 90 days a few days after being heard in 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. Blatter was then suspended for 6 years and Platini for 4 years.

The former secretary general of Fifa, the French Jérôme Valcke, suspected of being involved in a case of resale of tickets during the World Cup-2014, had been provisionally suspended in October 2015, for 90 days, even before the opening legal proceedings.

Blatter's ex-right-hand man was then suspended for 10 years.

A member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since last January, Mr. Infantino could also be the subject of a procedure by the Ethics Commission of the Olympic body based in Lausanne.

Asked Monday by AFP, the IOC said that the director of ethics and compliance, Paquerette Girard Zappelli, "is monitoring the situation and can not make more comments at this stage", recalling that "the presumption of innocence prevails ".

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