New FIFA crisis: It denies reports of Infantino's suspension
- Reuters, Thursday, June 2, 2016 8:15 PM
FIFA's ethics committee was forced to issue a statement that there are no formal proceedings against
Infantino after German newspaper Die Welt reported that he was facing a provisional
ban for unethical conduct, specifically suggesting Infantino had ordered FIFA staff members to delete recordings of a meeting of the FIFA Council at which the ouster of the head of the audit and
compliance committee, Domenico Scala, was discussed.
FIFA said that in the email in question, Infantino ordered a copy of the recording used to record the minutes of the meeting
had been deleted because it was stored improperly, not original audio file that still existed and was properly archived.
Excerpts from the tape, including comments by American Sunil
Gulati, were published by the German paper FAZ. The U.S. Soccer
president said he had unsuccessful negotiated Scala's resignation but then said FIFA could not fire Scala, who championed FIFA's reforms, without cause.
The tapes confirm that Infantino was upset with the salary offer made by Scala.
