Swiss investigation on FIFA’s Infantino set to be closed down

FIFA also did not immediately confirm Infantino no longer faces suspicion he was put under in 2020 by a previous special prosecutor appointed by Swiss lawmakers to first handle the investigation.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino in the stands before the match between Panama and France at the 2023 Women’s World Cup. | Photo Credit: CARL RECINE/ REUTERS

Special prosecutors in Switzerland are closing a years-long probe of the former attorney general who had undisclosed meetings with FIFA president Gianni Infantino during a sweeping investigation of international football.

Swiss media reported Friday that Michael Lauber, who lost his job as the top Swiss federal prosecutor in the fallout from the Infantino meetings, was notified of the two special prosecutors’ intention to close their investigation.

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A lawyer for Lauber, Lorenz Erni, confirmed to The Associated Press in an email message he was told the case is being shut down.

Special prosecutors Ulrich Weder and Hans Maurer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

FIFA also did not immediately confirm Infantino no longer faces suspicion he was put under in 2020 by a previous special prosecutor appointed by Swiss lawmakers to first handle the investigation.

Lauber was under investigation for possible abuse of public office and Infantino was implicated in inciting him in a case provoked by complaints from Swiss residents who were not identified.

Lauber and Infantino had two undocumented meetings in 2016, soon after the FIFA president was elected, during a Swiss investigation into international football business. It ran parallel with a sweeping case run by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Both men consistently claimed they did not recall details of the meetings which were revealed in the Football Leaks series published by German magazine Der Spiegel.

Months later, further media reports revealed a third meeting had been held in June 2017 in a Bern hotel. They again both said they did not recall details of what was discussed.

Lauber was ousted as Switzerland’s attorney general in 2020 after being found to have misled and obstructed an oversight office monitoring federal prosecutors.

The first special prosecutor, Stefan Keller, was later removed by a federal court after Infantino formally complained of bias.

Weder and Maurer took over the case and questioned Infantino in January after his return to Switzerland from the World Cup in Qatar.