Infantino promised to clean up football's image as Fifa president. Photo: AP
Swiss police have searched the offices of European football's governing body, after ex-secretary general and new Fifa president Gianni Infantino was named in the Mossack Fonseca leak.
While working for Uefa, Infantino co-signed a television rights deal in 2006 with two businessmen who have since been accused by the FBI of bribery. Infantino has denied any wrongdoing.
The contract, which Infantino co-signed as Uefa's then-legal director, was leaked from the database of the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, The Guardian and the BBC reported.
"I am dismayed and will not accept that my integrity is being doubted by certain areas of the media," Infantino said.
The Uefa contract reportedly co-signed by Infantino sealed a three-year deal for TV rights in Ecuador for the Champions League to Cross Trading. That company is a subsidiary of a group owned by Argentine marketing executives Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, who were indicted last year by American federal prosecutors investigating a bribery and money laundering conspiracy in international soccer.
Infantino said he never personally dealt with Cross Trading nor their owners in a tender process conducted by an agency retained by Uefa. "Moreover, as media themselves report, there is no indication whatsoever for any wrongdoings from neither Uefa nor myself in this matter."
According to the British reports, Cross Trading paid US$111,000 for the rights and immediately resold them for a $200,000 profit to the Teleamazonas channel. There was no suggestion bribes or kickbacks were paid at any stage of the deals.
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