The independent ethics committee (internal justice) of FIFA acquitted the president of FIFA itself, Gianni Infantino, of any alleged violation of its code on Wednesday. This was announced by the governing body of world football.
Last July the Swiss authorities decided to open a criminal case against Infantino to investigate the meetings between the president of FIFA and the Swiss Attorney General, Michael Lauber.
Lauber and Infantino denied any wrongdoing and the FIFA president assured that he met with the Attorney General as part of the duties of his position.
The ethics committee said it received a complaint on June 21 and documentation from various Swiss authorities and administrative courts. “All this material has been duly analyzed by the president of the chamber of instruction in the context of the preliminary investigation,” the committee said in a statement.
“Based on the information available to date, no aspect of the conduct analyzed constitutes a violation of FIFA regulations,” he added.
The committee said that some parts of the complaints “do not even fall within the provisions of the FIFA code of ethics, nor do they justify the adoption of any type of measure, including provisional suspension.”
FIFA said that at the time of meetings in 2016 and 2017, the Attorney General's Office was investigating more than 20 cases related to a scandal in which FIFA was involved before Infantino was elected president in 2016.
FIFA was embroiled in the worst corruption scandal in its history in 2015, prompting several officials to be indicted in the United States on corruption-related charges. Infantino was chosen in 2016 to replace Sepp Blatter, who was the subject of criminal proceedings in 2015. Upon being elected, Infantino promised to clean up FIFA and refocus on football.