Infantino holds on to power in Zurich

FIFA hits back at Swiss justice system in response to criminal investigations against FIFA President

It's gone by largely unnoticed in Australia but the issue we wrote about here in relation to FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, has come to pass.

Towards the end of July, Swiss Attorney-General Michael Lauber was forced to stand-down from his position while a Swiss federal prosecutor announced he had opened criminal proceedings against Infantino. The prosecutor said that he had opened the investigation into Infantino after concluding that there were “indications of criminal conduct” in meetings between Infantino and Lauber. These meetings had been arranged by another prosecutor, Rinaldo Arnold, who is a childhood friend of Infantino's, and who has also stood aside from his role.

The investigation concerns the abuse of public office, breach of official secrecy, assisting offenders and incitement to break the law. Infantino was allegedly keen to explain to Lauber that he was entirely innocent in relation to alleged wrongdoing associated with a UEFA TV contract that he signed.

As we noted here in June, there is nothing implicitly wrong with the Attorney-General meeting with any constituent, particularly the head of the most powerful single sporting organisation in the world, as long as those meetings are not secret and they are appropriately documented. Indeed, Infantino said the same in a statement earlier this month:

“To meet with the Attorney General of Switzerland is perfectly legitimate and it’s perfectly legal. It’s no violation of anything.”

Infantino also rejected any wrongdoing. Likewise, Lauber has rejected any wrongoing but said he resigned as it was “detrimental” to his office if he was not believed.

Lauber was the Attorney-General who stood beside then US Attorney-General Loretta Lynch soon after the initial FIFA arrests in May 2015. While the US focussed their initial inquiries on North, Central and South America, the Swiss were examining the conduct surrounding World Cup bidding contests at least as far back as Germany 2006.

Michael Lauber with Loretta Lynch, 2015

Since then, the now five-year investigation has been criticised by journalists, academics and whistleblowers who have assisted the Swiss with their inquiries, which are described as slow and not really serious.

Such are the vagaries of the Swiss justice system, that a potential witness can be in a closed room all day, giving evidence against FIFA, with FIFA's lawyers also in the room, able to take notes and able to answer questioons. I know and/or have heard of at least four occasions where witnesses have been shown documents irrelvant to their realm of knowledge or expertise. One such piece of information – if ever made pubic – would have significant implications for many in world football and world media.

In fact, the only case that was brought to a trial was against a group of former football officials from Germany, all implicated in the awarding of the 2006 World Cup. However, it collapsed because of the slow Swiss and the statute of limitations.

The lead lawyer on the case from the Attorney-General's department, Olivier Thormann, who was their equivalent of the DPP for Economic Crime, was suspended from his role at the end of 2018 for allegedly accepting gifts from FIFA.

The role of Thormann's younger deputy Joel Pahud is now also being examined; Pahud is married to a member of the UEFA Legal Department – where Infantino was once her boss – and, along with Lauber and Thormann, they all went to the same law school as Infantino.

Infantino and those who support him are keen to point out that FIFA has reformed and that nepotism, cronyism and corruption are a thing of the past in world football.

However, his critics note that Infantino has been quick to get rid of those who did take action to deal with those who were accused of corruption or who were not fit for office, and since then the replacements have done very little. Infantino dismissed the former Ethics Committee chairmen (former Swiss prosecutor Cornel Borbely and German Judge Hans-Joachim Eckert) and he appointed and then dismissed renowed governance expert and former Portuguese Finance Minister, Professor Miguel Maduro. Borbely and Eckert took action against Blatter and Michel Platini; while Maduro rejected Russian deputy prime minister, Vitaly Mutko as a canddiate for the FIFA Council.

In somewhat typical fashion, FIFA has come out fighting not by addressing the issues at hand but by attacking all those who dare to speak about the issue, most recently Professor Mark Pieth, who was brought in by former FIFA President Sepp Blatter to introduce governance reforms from 2011-2013.

FIFA has retaliated by criticising Pieth and the CHF 2.5 million he collected for his work. Pieth responded by pointing out that the money was used to pay “a dozen legal experts from all over the world” for three years, and that he received no money personally but his university was compensated for his time.

In 2018, FIFA financial statements show that the current Ethics Committee, all appointed by Infantino, cost USD$2.5 million with legal expenses of almost USD$6 million.

FIFA now has a new phalanx of lawyers and PR experts circling the wagons around Infantino, led by deputy secretary-general, Alasdair Bell, who described the investigations as an “'Alice in Wonderland' situation”.

Pieth also said FIFA's comments – delivered via Bell – were “astonishing” and distorted the facts.

“That the reform process got stuck in 2012 is solely the doing of Infantino and UEFA who disliked introducing terms of office and an independent vetting committee.”

Pieth concluded by returning to the current case.

“I believe FIFA is panicking in the face of the criminal investigation initiated against its president. If FIFA dislikes the Swiss legal system to this extent it may consider moving to a location with a legal order more conducive to its way of doing business.”

As a minimum, Infantino should be the subject of an inquiry by the FIFA Ethics Committee because he is the subject of a criminal investigation in relation to his duties as FIFA President. According to Zurich insiders, his hand-picked FIFA Ethics Investigatory Chairperson, Maria Claudia Rojas of Colombia, is unlikely to do anything other than what Infantino wants.

In a recent letter to the 211 member associations (available below), Infantino has said he will not do so because the complaint is anonymous and “the matter was opened without even consulting myself”.