Gianni Infantino hails ‘full and clear victory for me’ in punchy reply after Swiss prosecutors close case against him… as FIFA president blasts ‘poor, envious and corrupt people trying to attack my reputation’

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has rejoiced in a ‘full and clear victory for me’ after Swiss prosecutors closed an investigation into alleged wrongdoing.

The probe, launched in July 2020, was looking into three alleged secret meetings between Infantino, the former Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber and chief public prosecutor of the Upper Valais, Rinaldo Arnold, supposedly in 2016 and 2017.

Lauber headed an investigation into world football’s governing body between 2015 and 2019 before resigning in 2020 amid the fallout from it.

However, Swiss Extraordinary Federal Prosecutors Hans Maurer and Ulrich Weder have now dismissed the proceedings against the FIFA president.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino declared a ‘full and clear victory for me’ after Swiss prosecutors dropped a three-year-long investigation into alleged wrongdoing 

It was alleged Infantino met secretly with Michael Lauber (pictured), the former Swiss attorney general, while he was leading an investigation into world football’s governing body

Maurer and Weder took over the investigation in May 2021 after prosecutor Stefan Keller was removed from his position after a court ruled he could not ‘guarantee a fair process.’

That followed a successful complaint from FIFA over four press releases issued from his office which world football’s governing body said demonstrated ‘extreme bias’.

Thursday’s development prompted a punchy statement from FIFA: ‘Now it is official: FIFA President Gianni Infantino has always acted absolutely correctly and lawfully in his relations with the Swiss public prosecutors who were investigating the ‘old FIFA’! 

‘The new FIFA is today a clean, well run and robust organisation which operates in accordance with the highest ethical and governance standards.

‘FIFA takes note, with extreme satisfaction, of the decision of the two Extraordinary Federal Prosecutors, Hans Maurer and Ulrich Weder, to dismiss and definitively close the proceedings against Gianni Infantino in relation to the so-called ‘Lauber case’.

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‘Mr Maurer and Mr Weder were put on the case after the previous ‘extraordinary prosecutor’ was rightfully kicked out by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in 2021 for acting with evident bias.

‘The outcome of this investigation is obviously entirely unsurprising. The only surprising element is only the long time taken to reach such an obvious conclusion.

‘FIFA President Gianni Infantino: ‘This is a full and clear victory for me, for the new FIFA and for justice!’

‘It is now clear that the accusations against me were mere attempts by poor, envious and corrupt people to attack my reputation.

Infantino took aim at ‘poor, envious and corrupt people [trying] to attack my reputation’ 

‘If these people have some dignity left, they should at least have the decency and apologise for their actions and the damage caused.

‘Indeed and with no surprise, the investigation fully and clearly confirms that I have always acted in a lawful and correct way, always defending exclusively the interests of FIFA and football.’

Back in March, Swiss prosecutors cleared Infantino of any wrongdoing over his use of a private jet in 2017.

He chartered a flight from Suriname to Switzerland and prosecutor Keller called for a criminal investigation, which was later dropped.