By Andrew Warshaw
August 11 – Just days after he was controversially cleared by FIFA’s ethics committee of any wrongdoing, Gianni Infantino has been plunged into yet more embarrassment over his pledge to clean up the organisation in the wake of the Sepp Blatter regime.
Ethics investigators have finally confirmed they are formally probing Marco Polo del Nero, the US-indicted head of Brazilian football alongside whom Infantino was filmed at the Rio Olympics, the pair of them smiling for the cameras and holding up a Brazil shirt with Gianni, on the back.
Given that Del Nero, who has somehow remained president of the Brazilian Football Confederation, is a wanted man in the United States as part of the investigation into widespread bribery and corruption at the heart of FIFA, Infantino’s gaffe is unlikely to go down too well with US justice authorities.
“We are able to confirm that there are formal proceedings going on against Marco Polo del Nero,” the investigatory chamber of FIFA’s ethics committee said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Tellingly del Nero has avoided traveling outside Brazil since being indicted and has missed a string of FIFA summits, not least the FIFA presidential election in Zurich in February when his federation is understood to have voted for Infantino.
Infantino, as he has throughout the past few months whenever his conduct has been questioned, adopted a ‘mea non culpa’ stance.
“While in Brazil for the Olympic Games, I could not decline an invitation to participate in a meeting with representatives from the top Brazilian football clubs,” he said in a statement to AP. “We did not talk about investigations or procedures within FIFA or any other entity.”
Maybe not but that surely doesn’t excuse the rank poor judgement of exploiting a public relations opportunity that has horribly backfired, with Del Nero fighting extradition to the United States where his predecessor Jose Maria Marin is under house arrest in New York.
Del Nero was also in Zurich at the time of Marin’s arrest in May last year but flew out of the country on the first available flight and has not left his homeland since. He is one of 42 officials and entities indicted as part of the US-led probe into $200 million worth of corruption.
It was around the time he was in Rio meeting del Nero, of course, that the announcement was made that Infantino would not face ethics charges for taking up offers of private flights to visit Pope Francis at the Vatican, Vladimir Putin in Moscow and the Emir of Qatar.
As Insideworldfootball wrote this week, while Infantino has broken no laws posing with Del Nero, the picture once again calls into question the ethical and moral judgement of a man elected to the head of FIFA on a platform of purging the institution of corruption. It also potentially adds to the pressure on FIFA holding on to its ‘victim status’ in the eyes of US justice authorities.
Questions are now bound to be asked about the timing of the ethics committee’s confirmation that “there are formal proceedings” against Del Nero especially when the case was opened back in December.
Is it pure co-incidence that the announcement was made so close to the Infantino verdict or was it a quickfire, face-saving exercise? Would they have made any announcement at all but for the unfortunate photo opportunity?
Furthermore, having provisionally suspended Ángel Napout, one-time leader of CONMEBOL, and Alfredo Hawit, Honduran ex-head of the CONCACAF – both of whom have also been indicted by US authorities – questions could justifiably be asked about why the same provisional suspension has not been meted out to Del Nero, whether or not he is still among FIFA’s top brass. And why he has been allowed to run Brazilian football in an Olympic year.
Of course we do not know all the facts but on the surface at least, it would appear that once again the inconsistent nature of ethics committee’s modus operandi has been laid bare.
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