By Andrew Warshaw
October 7 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino seems unlikely to face an ethics prosecution over his role in a loan to the Slovenian Football Association while he was UEFA general secretary.
Although Infantino was recently exonerated by FIFA’s ethics committee of any wrongdoing following a spate of allegations linked to his conduct since becoming FIFA president, the Norwegian investigative website Josimar, in conjunction with a Danish newspaper, suggested this week that he may be in trouble again for having breached FIFA rules while he was Michel Platini’s number two at UEFA.
Reports allege that UEFA granted the Slovenian FA – headed by Aleksander Ceferin, the new UEFA president – a loan of €4 million, €3.6 million of which was spent on buying 17.3% of the total shares in the online lottery company Sportna Loterija, a breach of FIFA’s ethics code.
Infantino has come under intense media scrutiny for a series of highly questionable moves since he took over from Sepp Blatter but there seems little chance of this particular alleged infraction being pinned on him by FIFA’s ethics committee.
According to the Scandinavian reports, the loan was made in June last year but Insideworldfootball has learned there is no evidence that Infantino personally signed off the deal.
Ceferin has already dismissed the latest allegations and while it is understood UEFA are looking into Infantino’s role in the loan, any case against him is likely to be deemed even less watertight than the unrelated accusations over which, rightly or wrongly, he was recently cleared.
Nevertheless, Infantino, who has made no public statement on the matter, seems likely to be quizzed about it when he meets the media following FIFA’s first full ruling Council meeting next week.
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