Lausanne (AFP)

Offensive in the face of the investigation aimed at him in Switzerland, FIFA President Gianni Infantino presented himself on Friday as a herald of the fight against corruption in football, praising the efforts made by the body in the face of the pandemic.

"We have the money, since in this new Fifa, the money no longer disappears. It is reinvested, it goes into football to help football," he attacked at the opening of the 70th Congress, held by videoconference with delegates from 211 member federations.

Spontaneously, the 50-year-old Italo-Swiss evoked the proceedings opened against him on July 30 due to three meetings with the former Swiss public prosecutor, without minutes, against the backdrop of multiple investigations targeting former officials of Fifa.

"These are meetings that wanted to tend to show that the new Fifa was a thousand miles from the old", an authority "victim of corrupt officials", launched Infantino, alluding to the team of his predecessor Sepp Blatter, ousted in 2015.

Gianni Infantino is being prosecuted in this case for "incitement to abuse of authority", "violation of official secrecy" and "obstruction of criminal proceedings".

But the internal justice of Fifa closed the case in mid-August, seeing no "violation of the code of ethics".

- "Saved Fifa" -

"Why then did I meet the attorney general? Because it was my obligation (...) I wanted to free Fifa from the shadows of the past and I still want to do it", he hammered after to be explained for the first time in August in a letter to the federations.

In front of the press, he then judged "absurd" and "inconceivable" to be implicated for having spoken to a magistrate, and specified that he had not received any summons to be heard.

The Valaisan lawyer also spoke Wednesday in Washington with the American Minister of Justice, William Barr, while the United States is still investigating several South American football leaders and marketing officials for "racketeering" or corruption.

Infantino wanted to thank the American justice system for having "saved Fifa", undermined by the scandals that have led to a cascade of legal proceedings in Switzerland, the United States and France since 2015, he insisted.

"We will never again have corruption in football (...) We have excluded it and we will not let it return," promised Mr. Infantino, believing to have restored the integrity of the body by reforming its procedures and limiting the terms of office of its members.

- $ 1.5 billion in aid -

Gianni Infantino highlighted the Covid recovery plan announced in June and endorsed Thursday evening by the Fifa executive, endowed with $ 1.5 billion in grants and loans to help federations overcome the impact of the pandemic .

For the football body, the budgetary boost represents only $ 328.5 million, drawn from its enormous reserves of $ 2.74 billion.

The rest will be taken from the "Forward" development program, already endowed with 1.7 billion dollars over four years.

Responsible for piloting the distribution of these funds, the governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn explained Wednesday that about "150" of the 211 federations had already come forward: they can request up to $ 1.5 million in grants each. , including 500,000 for women's football.

Thailand has already used this aid to "restart its national championship with Covid tests and the introduction of VAR", while in Uruguay, the goal is to "rehire the employees" that the federation had to lay off, according to Mr. Rehn.

The pandemic could cost the football economy "$ 14 billion", the Finn estimated.

© 2020 AFP