Final proceedings against FIFA President Gianni Infantino have once again been dropped. The world governing body responded with a remarkable press release.
Gianni Infantino has another criminal case off his back. As announced on Thursday by FIFA and the two responsible federal prosecutors Ulrich Weder and Hans Maurer, the “Lauber case” has been dropped.
The case involved several secret meetings that took place between Infantino and then-Swiss federal prosecutor Michael Lauber and another prosecutor in the period between 2015 and 2017. Lauber, who wanted to clean up world soccer alongside ex-Justice Minister Loretta Lynch, has already stumbled over this affair; Infantino is now suffering a different fate. The FIFA president had been accused of trying to influence other criminal and mutual legal assistance proceedings related to the world governing body.
“Namely, there were no indications in this regard of appointments, agreements, decisions, etc., which affected or were intended to affect criminal procedural acts or omissions in the entire procedural complex ‘world soccer,'” Weder and Maurer now announced, however. There had been no indications that Lauber had been instrumentalized.
FIFA reacts “with great satisfaction “
FIFA reacted to the end of the investigation with a remarkably triumphant press release. It noted this “with great satisfaction,” it said. “The outcome of this investigation is, of course, not surprising at all. The only surprising thing is that it took so long to come to this conclusion, which was already so obvious in advance.” FIFA, he said, is “today a clean, very well-run and solid organization.”
Infantino is quoted as saying, “This is a full, clear and unequivocal victory for me, for the new FIFA and for justice! It is now clear to everyone that the accusations against me were just desperate attempts by poor, envious and corrupt people to attack my reputation. If these people had even a little bit of dignity, they should at least have the decency to apologize for their actions and the damage they caused. “
