By Andrew Warshaw
April 6 – New FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who came into office just six weeks ago vowing to clean up the discredited organisation, has himself been drawn into the corruption scandal that has brought down a raft of high-profile powerbrokers.
Freshly released files relating to the headline-making Panama Papers data leak show that Infantino, while he was at UEFA, signed off a contract in 2006 to Argentine father and son Hugo and Mariano Jinkis who bought TV rights for the Champions League to be shown in Ecuador, who then immediately sold them on for almost three times the price via an offshore shell company.
Infantino, who succeeded Sepp Blatter at the end of February, is not accused of any wrongdoing but the Jinkis’ have been indicted as part of the US Justice Department’s football corruption probe that brought FIFA to its knees. Both father and son are currently under house arrest in Argentina fighting extradition to the US accused of bribery and kickbacks to secure marketing contracts for the South American region.
The latest disclosures are based on the leak of 11 million documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca that has sent the offshore financial world into panic and has already forced the resignation of the Icelandic president.
The files reveal the Jinkis’ used their power as directors of an offshore company named Cross Trading SA to gain the Champions League rights. Cross Trading paid $111,000 for the rights for three seasons, then, according to the leaked documents, sold them on to Ecuadorian TV broadcaster Teleamazonas for $311,170.
The deal was signed with UEFA’s broadcasting and marketing partner, Team Marketing, but the contract was signed off on by Infantino who was then UEFA’s Director of Legal Services. Cross Trading, which was a shell company registered in the tiny South Pacific tax haven of Niue, also paid $28,000 for the rights to the UEFA Super Cup, selling those to Teleamazonas for $126,200.
According to the BBC, UEFA initially denied doing any business with any of those who have been indicted by the US Justice Department but has since added that the TV rights were sold to the highest bidder in “an open and competitive tender process.”
At the time Infantino, who went on to become general secretary, was director of legal services with UEFA but there is no suggestion whatsoever that he took a bribe. “The TV contract in question was signed by Gianni Infantino since he was one of several UEFA directors empowered to sign contracts at the time,” read a UEFA statement. “As you will have observed, the contract was also co-signed by another UEFA director. It’s standard practice.”
Nevertheless, the revelations are an embarrassing setback for the new regime at FIFA coming just 24 hours after news that Juan Pedro Damiani, a member of FIFA’s ethics committee, is facing an internal investigation into suspected links with Eugenio Figueredo, another of those who has been indicted in the $200 million FIFAGate corruption scandal. On his election in February, Infantino pledged to “restore the image” of FIFA.
UEFA insist the arrangement with Cross Trading was totally legitimate since it could not have known when the deal it was signed that the Jinkis’ would subsequently become embroiled in scandal a decade later.
“If UEFA is asked to cooperate or provide information in connection with a US Department of Justice investigation, then it will do so,” the UEFA statement added.
“There is no suggestion whatsoever of any UEFA official or marketing partner taking any form of bribe or kickback, whether in relation to this tiny deal, or any other commercial transaction.”
“The reason why Cross Trading appears as the contract partner in this deal is simply because Team was advised that Cross Trading had the mandate to act as exclusive buyer for all sports TV rights of Teleamazonas in the European area. Neither Team nor UEFA had any reason to believe that there was anything suspicious or untoward about an agency relationship between Cross Trading and Teleamazonas.”
For its part, FIFA said that the matter was UEFA’s business and that “to the best of his knowledge Gianni Infantino had no dealings in his time at UEFA with any of the persons mentioned”.
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