FIFA president Gianni Infantino can continue in office while under criminal investigation in Switzerland, the soccer body’s ethics committee ruled on Wednesday.
Preliminary investigations into Infantino’s conduct – relating to his undisclosed meetings with Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber and taking a private flight on FIFA business from the Caribbean to Geneva – have been closed.
In a statement published by FIFA, chief ethics investigator Maria Claudia Rojas noted: “The evident lack of a prima facie case regarding any alleged breach of the FIFA Code of Ethics.”
Rojas ruled that not even a provisional suspension from duty was required.
The decision was published just three weeks after a criminal proceeding was opened against Infantino by a Swiss special prosecutor.
He assessed several complaints about the FIFA leader’s meetings in 2016 and 2017 with the attorney general, Michael Lauber, and possible abuse of public office.
Still, the ethics ruling was expected after FIFA defended its president in a robust and at times testy way in recent weeks.
Infantino was cleared in the internal investigation hours after FIFA published the agenda for its remote congress he will chair online from Zurich on September 18.
It also came on the day a Swiss parliamentary commission confirmed Lauber would leave his job on August 31.
Lauber offered his resignation last month after a disciplinary sanction was not overturned on appeal.
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