– No justification. No explanation then, and no explanation later either, says Hans-Joachim Eckert firmly. In an icy voice, he explains what happened in May 2017. Eckert had been head of the ethics committee in Fifa for five years. He had banned both the Fifa president, the general secretary of Fifa and the Uefa president from all football. And in May 2017, he had started investigations into current Fifa president Gianni Infantino. But suddenly, at a congress hotel in Bahrain, it was all over. From one day to another, he had to close over 100 investigations into the top of Fifa. news has been in contact with several sources close to Fifa who praise Hans-Joachim Eckert’s integrity. Nevertheless, he was thrown out. What happened? Deployed on the plane to Fifa Congress The Fifa Congress in Manama, Bahrain, 11 May 2017: All the world’s top football players have gathered. It is the first congress Gianni Infantino leads as president of Fifa. The years before have been characterized by corruption, arrests and criticism. When Infantino was elected in 2016, he promised to clean things up. With increased transparency, reforms and changes, Infantino should make the organization less corrupt. BANNED BLATTER: – We were all aware that we would ban the two most important men in the world of football, one FIFA, the other UEFA. It’s not that simple, says Hans-Joachim Eckert. Photo: Trygve Heide / news Among others Hans-Joachim Eckert was present in Manama. The German had made some tough choices since he was appointed head of the ethics committee five years earlier. – I thought that because of my job of banning high-ranking Fifa members for the last four or five years, I hadn’t made many friends, to put it mildly. It was probably someone, not just one person, who said: “That’s enough now, new people are needed”, says Eckert. When Eckert landed at the airport in Bahrain before the congress, he checked his cellphone. Questions poured in from journalists about why he was still not nominated by the Fifa board for re-election. He did not understand what was happening, but at the hotel he had it confirmed: the board, with Infantino as president, wanted someone new in his role. – During the press conference at the time, we were asked how many violations he had committed, and we then mentioned that there were at least a hundred investigations. There was enough to do, says Eckert today. Fifa denies in an e-mail to news that there is a connection between the investigation of Infantino and the fact that Eckert was dismissed. – New members were chosen by the Fifa Congress, not by Infantino. It is a normal democratic process set out in the Fifa statutes. The new members were chosen because they were recognized, high-profile experts in their respective fields, and they better reflected the geographical and gender diversity that must be part of an international organization such as Fifa. ANSWER: – I don’t think we should make a tragedy out of this, said the Fifa president about the departure of Eckert during the Fifa congress in 2017. Photo: JACK GUEZ / AFP – A series of unfortunate circumstances To understand what happened, we must look a little at events that had happened before this day in May in 2017. Here there are two different sequences of events that are relevant. They are related, but for the sake of simplicity, we split them into two parts: the Fifa investigations and the investigation in the Swiss legal system. First Fifa: In 2015, the Fifa scandal broke in earnest. The FBI investigated a wide range of Fifa officials. Eckert, as chairman of the ethics committee, naturally had to do the same. In the winter of 2015/2016, he made, among other things, the decisions to suspend Blatter, Platini and Valcke. Infantino was elected in the spring of 2016. Just three months after Infantino was elected, Eckert received a notice on his desk. The notice was, according to Ekstra Bladet, sent from a large number of Fifa employees and dealt with trips the new president had made by private plane to the two upcoming World Cup hosts Russia and Qatar. Eckert began to investigate. MEETING: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Fifa President Gianni Infantino met in the Kremlin in 2016. In connection with this trip, Infantino used a private jet reportedly paid for by Putin. Photo: Alexei Druzhinin / AP – Those flights were registered internally. Investigations were launched, and it was concluded that there were a number of unfortunate circumstances when he flew to Moscow where he had an agreement with Putin, who kept him waiting for a day, explains Eckert. Eckert investigated these voyages, but ultimately chose not to proceed with them. A little over a year later, in April 2017, Infantino traveled again by private plane. This time it was a journey from Suriname to Zurich. Infantino justified the journey by saying that his flight was canceled and that he had to meet Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin. The only problem was that Ceferin, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, was in Armenia at the time. Eckert only had time to hear about this flight before he was deposed. Fifa never did anything about this trip, but Swiss prosecutors did: Removed the man investigating Infantino The investigation in Switzerland: After Infantino was elected president, he had several meetings with the Attorney General of Switzerland, Michael Lauber. The meetings in 2016 and 2017 were not known to the outside world until several years later. MEETING: Michael Lauber is said to have had several secret meetings with Infantino. The meetings led to Lauber having to step down, while Infantino still sits as Fifa president. Photo: STEFAN WERMUTH / AFP Swiss prosecutors wanted to look into these meetings in more detail. Was this an attempt by Infantino to secure influence or information from Swiss prosecutors? According to several media outlets, Infantino used the meetings to ensure that he was not being investigated. Fifa claims there were meetings where Infantino explained that Fifa would cooperate in the ongoing investigation into the Fifa scandal from 2015. Stefan Keller began investigating the meetings in July 2020. In December, the case took a new turn. Keller had learned of the flight Infantino took from Suriname in 2017 and wanted to investigate that flight. To recall: This was the flight Infantino took when he was going to meet Uefa president Ceferin who was in Armenia at the time. – There are clear signs that the Fifa president has been found guilty of criminal and reprehensible behaviour, said Keller, according to Insidethegames. The statements were very poorly received by Fifa. They thought Keller prejudged and sued the investigator. Just under six months later, Keller was dismissed as head of the investigation. Swiss prosecutors confirm to news that Infantino is still under investigation for the meetings with Lauber. They have not answered questions about whether Infantino is also under investigation for the flight from Suriname. According to Ekstra Bladet, Infantino will be questioned in Switzerland in January. Claims Infantino interferes Eckert has previously stated that the ethics committee in today’s Fifa is “dead”. – The committee must be independent. This committee must not be under the influence of anyone, not even the president of Fifa. This independence is over. – How can you say that the ethics committee is no longer independent? – For example, some changes were made afterwards. A rule was also introduced that no one in Fifa can publicly say anything negative about Fifa. I would never be able to accept that as head of the committee. Because it is an employment law and has nothing to do with ethics, Eckert believes. MUNICH: Eckert has a long career in law, including as a judge in the regional court in Munich. Photo: Anne Rognerud / news He gives another example: – When the ethics rules were to be revised, Infantino wanted to see them and change them. The president cannot intervene. It is crucial that independence is safeguarded. Fifa rejects both of these things: – The ethics committee is led by Vassilios Skouris, who for 12 years was president of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. His independence cannot be questioned. This alleged rule about what people can or cannot say is obviously pure invention, writes Fifa. Fifa states that the revision of the ethical guidelines was led by Skouris. They believe it was an open process with all relevant parties. One thing can get Infantino suspended. Eckert says that he initially had a good impression of Infantino. He entered Fifa with plans for reforms and more transparency. But since then, Infantino has lost track, Eckert believes. Among other things, he reacts strongly to the speech Infantino gave the day before the start of the World Cup. – I couldn’t fathom it. What is going on here? I’m a working immigrant, I’m gay, a Qatari. I thought, “What is this”? HONORABLE AWARD: Karen Espelund was central to the Norwegian Football Association from 1988–2009. From 2011 to 2016, she sat on the board of UEFA. In 2022, she received the honorary award at the sports gala. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB There were several who thought Infantino would be the right man for Fifa. Among them is Karen Espelund, former general secretary of the Norwegian Football Association. Espelund supported Infantino when he was elected in 2016. But it didn’t take long before she saw that this was not going the right way. – He made me uneasy relatively quickly, in terms of perspective. Not least by starting to build up a separate secretariat, around himself. It got very messy very early on, says Espelund today. Espelund mentions several things she reacts to. That Saudi Arabia seems to be Infantino’s preferred World Cup organizer in 2030, for example. But she thinks the worst thing is that Infantino runs a line where he tries to weaken Uefa by, for example, expanding the Club World Cup and proposing the World Cup for national teams every two years. NEAR: Gianni Infantino and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, have been seen together frequently in recent years. Here they sit together in the stands during the opening match of the World Cup in Qatar. Photo: MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP – Instead of creating a community in football to take on the really big challenges, such as the capital forces on the outside who want to torpedo the good structures football has developed in a democratic way, he plays the different parts of the world and Uefa up against the rest. And it is a divide and rule approach that is only destructive, unfortunately. Despite the fact that Infantino has received massive criticism from Europe in recent weeks, he will be re-elected as president of Fifa in March. The only thing that can stop him is an indictment from the Swiss police investigation. – According to the code of ethics (for Fifa, editor’s note), it is a misdemeanor when charges have been brought. So not just an investigation, but at the latest in the event of an indictment, he must be banned, explains Eckert.
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Hans-Joachim Eckert investigated Infantino – was dismissed without warning – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule
