FIFA to AP: Infantino should remain president during probe

By: Rob Harris, The Associated Press Posted: 2:44 PM CDT Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020 Last Modified: 8:10 PM CDT Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020

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LONDON - Gianni Infantino can remain FIFA president and should not be forced from power while under criminal investigation, world football's governing body told The Associated Press on Saturday.

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LONDON - Gianni Infantino can remain FIFA president and should not be forced from power while under criminal investigation, world football's governing body told The Associated Press on Saturday.

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This article was published 01/08/2020 (2226 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LONDON – Gianni Infantino can remain FIFA president and should not be forced from power while under criminal investigation, world football’s governing body told The Associated Press on Saturday.

A Swiss special prosecutor opened a criminal case into Infantino’s conduct on Thursday over his meetings with the country’s attorney general who has been leading a sprawling investigation into football corruption.

“There is nothing preventing the president from performing his duties,” FIFA said in a statement to the AP. “He will continue to fully assume his functions within FIFA.”

FILE - In this Tuesday, March 3, 2020 file photo, FIFA President Gianni Infantino addresses a meeting of European soccer leaders at the congress of the UEFA governing body in Amsterdam's Beurs van Berlage, Netherlands. Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber has offered to resign in the latest fallout from meetings he had with FIFA president Gianni Infantino during a sprawling investigation into soccer corruption. Lauber offered his resignation to the parliamentary judicial commission ahead of the publication of a federal court ruling in his appeal against being disciplined in March for misconduct. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, file)

The FIFA ethics committee faced calls to suspend Infantino from his predecessor, Sepp Blatter, who was toppled in disgrace in 2015 and banned from world football until 2021.

“The FIFA president is subject to a criminal investigation by the Swiss judicial authorities,” FIFA said, “but he has not been charged nor is he guilty of anything. … FIFA and its president will continue to co-operate fully with the judicial authorities in Switzerland until these investigations are concluded.”

Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber has offered to resign over the case that centres on three meetings he had with Infantino in recent years — including one that he hadn’t disclosed and claimed no memory of.

“FIFA is convinced that at the end of the current investigations it will be confirmed that the FIFA president didn’t do anything wrong by performing his fiduciary duties and meeting the attorney general of Switzerland,” FIFA said.

Infantino was elected president in the fallout from the investigations that erupted around FIFA in 2015.

Michel Platini, the favourite to succeed Blatter and then serving as UEFA president, was also suspended.

In the void, Infantino, who led the UEFA administration as general secretary, saw a route to leading FIFA. The Swiss-Italian was elected in 2016, beating Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman.

The Bahraini is senior vice-president of FIFA and would likely become interim leader if Infantino was suspended.

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