This is a new twist in the extended "Fifagate" series, this myriad of corruption scandals, criminal investigations and political maneuvers linked to the International Football Federation (FIFA). Saturday, April 18, revelations from two German and Swiss daily newspapers, the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Luzerner Zeitung, are helping to fuel suspicions of collusion against the Swiss Gianni Infantino, president of the world body since 2016, and magistrates of the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Swiss Confederation (MPC).
Based on several sources, the two newspapers claim that the Swiss prosecutor Cédric Remund, who has been directly responsible for several FIFA-related procedures since 2015, participated in a secret meeting on June 16, 2017, at the Schweizerhof hotel in Bern, during which Mr. Infantino and his childhood friend, the first prosecutor of Haut-Valais Rinaldo Arnold, met the Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber and his head of communication, André Marty.
This meeting, which Mr. Lauber did not mention during his hearing in November 2018 by the Supervisory Authority of the Swiss Prosecutor's Office (AS-MPC), resulted in the latter being subject to a disciplinary investigation. On March 4, the AS-MPC issued the conclusions of its report and considered Mr. Lauber to be guilty " for having violated several duties of office " by meeting informally and three times with the President of FIFA (civil party in these proceedings), in March and April 2016, and June 2017.
The rapporteurs have indicated that Mr Lauber has "Neglected to protocol his three proven matches", which have not been the subject of any report. The head of the MPC, to whom the AS-MPC inflicted a reduction in his annual salary, appealed this sanction before the Swiss Federal Administrative Court.
Contacted by The world, Mr. Remund has so far failed to act.
Several procedures possibly compromised
If it is confirmed that prosecutor Cédric Remund did participate in the June 2017 meeting, this twist could jeopardize several FIFA-related criminal proceedings.
- The 38-year-old Vaud magistrate notably worked within the framework of theinvestigation against Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the Qatari boss of Paris-Saint-Germain and BeIN Media, as well as Jérôme Valcke, the former French secretary to FIFA.
- Mr. Remund is also in charge of the procedure relating to the controversial 2006 World Cup allotment to Germany. A case in which three former executives of the German Federation and ex-FIFA number 2 Urs Linsi were referred to the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona. Postponed until April 20 due to the Covid-19 epidemic, the trial may never come to an end as the facts will be barred on April 27.
- Above all, Mr. Remund is also concerned by the procedure in which the former president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), Michel Platini, was heard as an assisted witness, in September 2015, for a alleged unfair payment of two million Swiss francs (1.8 million euros) made to him in 2011 by the ex-president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter. The latter is the subject of criminal proceedings in this case. In May 2018, it was Mr. Remund who mailed Mr. Platini that he would not be prosecuted in connection with the investigation.
- According to Süddeutsche Zeitung, this prosecutor was also in charge of a procedure relating to a questionable contract signed in 2006 by Mr. Infantino, then director of the UEFA legal affairs division, and granting television rights to the Champions League to an offshore company, owned by businessmen indicted by the US courts. Revealed by the Panama Papers, this case – which did not result in the FIFA president being charged – was closed by the MPC in January 2018. Several months after the Bern meeting in June 2017.
The June 2017 meeting nobody remembers
The Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Luzerner Zeitung bring these new elements after that The world and the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung revealed that the rapporteurs of the Supervisory Authority of the Swiss Prosecutor's Office considered, in their disciplinary report published in March, that Mr. Arnold sought, on behalf of Mr. Infantino, on July 8, 2015, to glean from the prosecutor Lauber of judicial information concerning… Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, then favorite in the race for the presidency of FIFA.
According to the AS-MPC report, this meeting took place a few days after " a five hour meeting Between FIFA and the MPC.
To explain his various informal meetings with Mr. Lauber, Mr. Infantino claims to have wanted " show its willingness, as well as that of FIFA, to cooperate in inquiries into what had happened at FIFA before he took over the leadership of the organization. "
As for the meeting of June 16, 2017, more particularly, no more Mr. Infantino than MM. Lauber, Marty and Arnold claim to remember.
In the November 2018 disciplinary report targeting former Swiss prosecutor Olivier Thormann, that The world consulted, Mr. Infantino and Mr. Lauber " would have wished "- after their second meeting on April 22, 2016 and according to Mr. Thormann – that" future discussions on the complex of procedures linked to FIFA at a non-operational level take place between Mr. Thormann and Marco Villiger , Then FIFA legal director.
These intentions, displayed before the June 2017 meeting by the FIFA president and the Swiss Attorney General, are all the more questionable in this case worthy of a spy novel.
