FIFA President Gianni Infantino "could be suspended by the governing body's ethics committee," according to Tim Röhn of DIE WELT. FIFA insiders said that a provisional 90-day suspension "could soon be handed down on Infantino for destroying evidence." The FIFA ethics committee has reportedly received several reports of misbehavior by the 46-year-old, who was elected only about three months ago. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but an email exchange, which leaked earlier this week, suggests that Infantino gave orders to destory voice recordings of a FIFA Council meeting in Mexico City in May. In a letter dated May 23, FIFA Legal Division Dir Marco Villiger confirmed that Infantino called for the destruction of the tape. All FIFA meetings are usually recorded and the meeting in question is said to have been about a plot to oust former FIFA Audit & Compliance Committee Chair Domenico Scala. The ethics commission is already investigating the accusations of a plot to oust Scala, who resigned in May. FIFA has not yet commented on the accusations regarding Infantino (DIE WELT, 6/2). On his Twitter account, Röhn added that FIFA told him that the original recording still exists and only a copy was deleted.
SKY SPORTS reported a FIFA ethics committee spokesperson said, "We are not in a position to indicate if we have or have not (begun) preliminary investigatory proceedings against an individual. We would however like to point out that there are no formal proceedings going on against Mr. Infantino" (
SKY SPORTS, 6/2).
