September 24 – Democratic members of the US House Judiciary Committee, led by Jamie Raskin, have accused FIFA president Gianni Infantino of a “woefully inadequate” level of cooperation in investigating his relationship with Donald Trump.
The head of FIFA has not responded to a request to appear before the commission or send documents requested by one of its members, the House Judiciary Committee said.
A spokeswoman for House Judiciary Democrats said: “While committee staff received a briefing on litigation related to the FIFA bribery scandal, FIFA has yet to release any priority documents requested by the committee, including those that would show how much money FIFA has given to the Trump family, answer key questions about the awarding of the FIFA Peace Prize at the FIFA World Cup or explain how conceived the Kush World Cup scheme.
“FIFA’s level of cooperation so far is woefully insufficient.”
Infantino had an Aug. 9 deadline to respond to the request for evidence, with Raskin, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, writing to Infantino and demanding that he appear to explain FIFA’s close relationship with the Trump administration, including all documents and communications about “anything of value (including the transfer of money, gifts, awards, prizes or public appearances) to any member of his administration, president or associated members of his administration, Trump or his family) with them, such as The Trump Organization.”
Raskin also asked Infantino to provide “all communications with the United States government related to your ticketing practices, including consumer complaints, discussions of variable or other pricing mechanisms, third-party vendors, and ticket pricing.” since all as visitor records of the FIFA offices in Miami and New York during the lease period of the office in New York City.
Infantino has come under pressure to resign after a Times press report detailed his plans to sell the World Cup to private equity through FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE).
These revelations prompted a major backlash from UEFA, Concacaf and AFC. Infantino, however, has confirmed his intention to run for the presidency for a fourth time next year at the FIFA Congress in Morocco. Candidates have until November 18 to present their candidacies.
Contact the writer of this story, Samindra Kunti, at (email protected)
