Collusion claims in Fifa graft probe

ZURICH • A Swiss prosecutor investigating corruption in football met in secret with Fifa president Gianni Infantino, German and Swiss media have alleged, further fuelling allegations of collusion between the world football governing body and investigators.

Citing unnamed sources, German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) and Switzerland's Luzerner Zeitung suggested that Cedric Remund was the previously unidentified fifth person at a secret meeting with Infantino and Swiss attorney-general Michael Lauber at the Schweizerhof Hotel in Bern on June 16, 2017.

If proven, the allegation could potentially compromise a number of high-profile football corruption probes of which Remund was directly in charge, claimed SZ.

According to the newspaper, the meeting with Infantino was also attended by Lauber's spokesman Andre Marty and Rinaldo Arnold, Infantino's friend and senior prosecutor for the Upper Valais canton.

Lauber, who is in charge of the probe into Fifa corruption which opened in 2015, had previously denied the meeting to the ethics body that oversees Swiss ministries during a disciplinary hearing.

Yet a March report by the body said the meeting had taken place, and accused him of "breaching several professional obligations," including "repeatedly not telling the truth" and "acting disloyally".

The prosecutor's salary was since cut by eight per cent, though the 54-year-old remains in office, having been reappointed by the Swiss Parliament last September.

The ethics body also found that a fifth person, who the two newspapers claimed was Remund, had attended the 2017 meeting.

According to SZ, the 38-year-old was in charge of a corruption investigation into Germany's hosting of the 2006 World Cup, as well as a suspicious TV rights contract - signed by Infantino - between European football governing body Uefa and two Argentinian businessmen in 2006.

Both probes were ongoing at the time of the 2017 meeting.

"What is clear is that an investigating prosecutor should never have been allowed to attend this meeting," SZ wrote.

Lauber's office has defended the other meetings with Infantino, insisting they were logistically necessary given the scope of the Fifa graft probe.

Switzerland's investigation concerns alleged misconduct that occurred before Infantino replaced Sepp Blatter in 2016.

The latter is currently serving a six-year ban from football-related activities over ethics violations and has been accused of arranging a payment of two million Swiss francs (S$2.9 million) to the then Uefa president Michel Platini in February 2011.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE