Welcome to Africanews

Please select your experience

Watch Live

Sport

sport

Swiss police raid UEFA offices over Infantino's link to 'Panama Papers'

Switzerland

In the wake of the Pana Papers leak, Swiss police have raided the offices of European football’s governing body UEFA in Nyon to seize information on a contract signed by recently elected FIFA boss Gianni Infantino.

Media reports on Tuesday said that while working for UEFA as director of legal services, Infantino co-signed a TV rights deal with an Argentine company called Cross Trading, which then sold them on at a huge profit to Equadorian TV broadcaster Teleamazons.

Panama Report: Swiss Police Raid UEFA Headquarters After FIFA President Gianni Infantino Is… https://t.co/57jrejxIIT pic.twitter.com/2xUhfEtD4r

— JJ. Omojuwa (@Omojuwa) April 7, 2016

UEFA has confirmed that Infantino, who was working for UEFA at the time, was one of two of its officials who signed the contract, reports say.

“UEFA can confirm that today we received a visit from the office of the Swiss Federal Police acting under a warrant and requesting sight of the contracts between UEFA and Cross Trading/Teleamazonas,” UEFA said in a statement.

Cross trading is owned by Hugo Jinkis and his son Mariano, both under house arrest in Argentina and both indicted by the US as part of an alleged multi-million dollar fraud.

There is no evidence to suggest UEFA, Infantino and Teleamazons did anything wrong.

In a further blow, Uruguayan lawyer Juan Pedro Damiani resigned as a FIFA ethics judge after the Panama Papers linked his legal firm to several off shore companies connected to Eugenio Figueredo, a former FIFA Vice-President arrested last May.

View more