FIFA ‘shocked’ by claim president Infantino used private jet in 2017

Football’s world governing body, FIFA has dismissed as spurious, the allegation that its president, Gianni Infantino used a private jet three years ago.

“There are clear signs for criminal conduct by the FIFA president,” special Swiss prosecutor Stefan Keller said in a statement.

Keller had been tasked with looking into questionable contacts between Infantino and others.

The prosector has asked Swiss authorities to investigate the matter relating to Infantino’s flight from Suriname to Geneva in 2017.

But Fifa said Keller’s claims were “baseless”, with the ethics committee having already looked into the allegations and cleared Infantino of violating its rules.

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Keller in the statement issued on Thursday called for the criminal investigation, while Fifa responded by saying it was “shocked by the statement”.

“Neither Fifa nor its president have ever been informed of these spurious new allegations.

“The method of ‘special prosecutor’ Stefan Keller to accuse and defame by publishing media releases without justification borders on character assassination and is rejected in the strongest possible terms by FIFA and its president,” added Fifa.

Infantino took over as President of the Zurich-based body in 2016, and was re-elected for second term in 2019.

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