Supporting confidential documents and emails, the Swiss daily The Geneva tribune ensures, Monday, April 27, that Gianni Infantino, president of the International Football Federation (FIFA) since 2016, wanted "Get rid of an investigation that threatened him personally" by meeting informally in 2016 with the Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber.
Criminal proceedings had been opened in April of the same year against an unknown person on suspicion of "Unfair management" and D'" breach of trust " by the prosecution of the Swiss Confederation (MPC) following the revelations of the "Panama Papers". It was aimed at a contract signed in 2006 by Mr. Infantino, when he was director of the legal affairs division of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).
The contract granted television rights to an offshore company, owned by businessmen indicted by the US courts. According to a classification order, that The world consulted, the prosecutor Cédric Remund closed this investigation in November 2017.
On April 6, 2016, the Swiss public prosecutor's office had searched UEFA headquarters to capture computer data. According to The Tribune de Genève, It was during this period that Mr. Infantino discussed this investigation with his childhood friend Rinaldo Arnold, the first prosecutor for Haut-Valais. The latter had notably helped to organize a first informal meeting between the FIFA President and Mr. Lauber, in March 2016, in which he also participated.
"Let it be made clear that I have nothing to do with this case"
April 12, 2016, in an email viewed by The Tribune de Genève, Mr. Infantino writes to Mr. Arnold: " I will try to explain to the MPC that it is in my interest to have everything cleared up as quickly as possible, to make it clear that I have nothing to do with this matter. "What is important is the meeting in two weeks, if you want I can accompany you again", replied Mr. Arnold.
The latter ultimately did not accompany his childhood friend on April 22 to a meeting in Zurich with Mr. Lauber, the prosecutor Olivier Thormann, and the legal director of FIFA.
According to revelations from the Football Leaks, Mr. Arnold was particularly active in helping his friend Infantino. "If you want, I can try to get the MPC to issue a press release explaining that there is no procedure against you," he wrote to the president of FIFA during this period.
Contacted by The world, Mr. Arnold did not follow up.
The latter would have much to say about his role as an intermediary in the meetings between the MPC and Mr. Infantino. And this, while the supervisory authority of the Swiss prosecution (AS-MPC) recognized, on March 4, the Attorney General Lauber " guilty of having violated several duties of office " by meeting informally (without supporting minutes), and on three occasions, the President of FIFA (civil party in these proceedings), in March and April 2016, then in June 2017.
Believing that the presence of Mr. Arnold was not justified by "No legal basis" during the meetings between Mr. Infantino and the MPC, the AS-MPC considers, according to the information of the World, that he had, from 8 July 2015 and on behalf of Mr. Infantino, sought to glean from the prosecutor Lauber judicial information concerning the FIFA president at the time, Joseph "Sepp" Blatter, and Michel Platini, UEFA boss and then favorite in the race for the FIFA presidency.
This meeting took place more than two months before the opening of criminal proceedings by the Swiss prosecution against Mr. Blatter for a payment of 2 million Swiss francs (1.8 million euros) which he made to Mr. Platini, in 2011. A case which thundered the political ambitions of the Frenchman, suspended from October 2015 to October 2019 by the FIFA ethics committee.
Mr. Arnold, Mr. Marty, director of communications for the prosecution, Mr. Infantino and Mr. Lauber say they have no memory of another meeting: the one they held on June 16, 2017, in Bern. A meeting in which the prosecutor Cédric Remund denies having participated. He claims to have taken time off that day to write a " scientific article " in a letter addressed to the Federal Criminal Court on April 20 that The world got it.
Numerous direct and informal exchanges between FIFA and the Swiss public prosecutor's office
Responsible for several procedures, including the cases relating to the award of the 2006 World Cup to Germany and the payment for which Michel Platini was heard as an assisted witness in September 2015 before being dismissed in May 2018 , Mr. Remund is charged by The Geneva Tribune to have had many direct and informal exchanges with FIFA. Like prosecutor Markus Nyffenegger, then responsible for football-related investigations at the MPC.
"Between July and September 2016, FIFA prosecutors and lawyers call each other more than twenty times", written The Tribune de Genève, who notes that "Prosecutors have apparently helped FIFA formulate its demands so that they can be accepted by the MPC. "
The Swiss daily adds that "Summaries of conversations" on the 2006 World Cup case – the trial of which will not take place due to limitation periods – " do not appear anywhere in documents " parquet.
When contacted, the MPC declined to comment. For its part, FIFA has not yet reacted. She always assured "That there is (had) nothing secret or suspicious about »Of these meetings between Mr. Infantino and Mr. Lauber, recalling his desire to "Cooperate".
