Swiss police raided the headquarters of the European soccer body UEFA in Nyon yesterday to gather information about a contract signed by Gianni Infantino, now head of the global soccer body FIFA, that was reported in the Panama Papers.
The Swiss attorney-general’s (OAG) office said the search was part of “ongoing criminal proceedings” and had been launched because of “suspicion of criminal mismanagement and misappropriation.”
“The OAG’s criminal proceedings are in connection with the acquisition of television rights and are at present directed against persons unknown, meaning that for the time being, no specific individual is being targeted by these proceedings,” it added.
Media reports said UEFA sold broadcast rights for 2006-09 Champions League matches to Argentine businessmen Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, owners of Cross Trading. These reports alleged that the pair re-sold the rights to Ecuadorean broadcaster Teleamazonas for three times as much, though UEFA said it had no knowledge of such a deal.
UEFA has confirmed that Infantino, who was working for UEFA at the time, was one of two of its officials who signed the contract. UEFA has denied any wrongdoing by itself or Infantino.
“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.
“Naturally, UEFA is providing the Federal Police with all relevant documents in our possession and will cooperate fully.”
Hugo and Mariano Jinkis are among several dozen football officials who were last year indicted in the United States as part of a huge corruption scandal which has swept the game and thrown FIFA into turmoil.
Infantino was elected as FIFA president in February to try and lead the federation into a new, scandal-free era.
The document was part of the 11 million that were leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca in what have become known as the Panama Papers.
In a separate statement, UEFA said the rights were sold to Teleamazonas after an “open, competitive, tender process” conducted by TEAM, its exclusive agent.”
“We can also add that the offer made by Teleamazonas was very much the “going rate” for this category of rights in comparable markets in Latin and Central America,” UEFA said in a statement to Reuters.
UEFA said there had been a tender, competing offers and it would have been “unusual” if it had not accepted the Teleamazonas offer which it said was the best one.