World association in crisis: FIFA expert: “Infantino will look for a way out”

“That’s a threat. Attack is the best means of defense, it’s always been that way. He’s making it clear that attacks from FIFA or on FIFA from other sides will be punished. He wants to soften things up, he doesn’t want to make FIFA look bad,” Eckert (78) told the German Press Agency.

“I doubt whether the FIFA community will swallow that.”

Infantino is under massive pressure, but is clearly not thinking about retreating. “Infantino will look for a way out, this crisis meeting is part of it. Is it the beginning of the end? It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. Infantino will fight,” said Eckert.

In any case, this behavior is “typical for all these people who also have high positions in companies. He doesn’t stand out from the crowd of others because they are fighting for his office. He earns a lot of money with his job and he wants to stay with it,” explained Eckert.

“So it’s completely normal behavior for him to take countermeasures and say: We apologize. I doubt whether the FIFA community will accept that.”

Eckert headed the adjudicatory chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee from 2012 to 2017. The long-term bans of then FIFA President Joseph Blatter and then UEFA boss Michel Platini fell during his term of office.

Sanctions without regard to official positions earned Eckert and the then chief investigator Cornel Borbély great respect. Immediately before the FIFA Congress in May 2017 in Bahrain under the new FIFA leadership led by Blatter’s successor Infantino, both had to leave.

The former judge calls for transparency

Eckert supports the European Football Union’s (UEFA) approach of threatening FIFA with legal action in connection with the failed investor deal. Technology investor Joshua Kushner, whose brother Jared is married to US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, should have played a key role through his investment firm.

“It’s quite common for incriminating documents to be made to disappear. We’ll see what comes out of it, how far along these preliminary discussions were, whether there were preliminary contracts, whether money was flowed, etc. I don’t think that a Mr. Kushner with Trump’s background will let Trump take the butter out of his bread if something has already been prepared and he has perhaps already invested money,” explained Eckert.

FIFA boss as a repeat offender

“The contracts have to be on the table, and it is also up to FIFA to disclose this in all the details. Who started this idea and when, who pushed it forward and so on,” he explained further. “This is the transparency that Infantino promised in 2016. He should also keep it.”

Eckert reminded that Infantino’s latest proposed deal is not new. “He already tried selling shares once in 2018 and didn’t get away with it. The council reacted the way it had to react back then: Who’s investing the money? Then Infantino said he couldn’t say that yet. The council replied: Then not,” said Eckert.

“This time Infantino wanted to do it without the Council. He would have pushed it so far until they would have said: Yes, then just swallow the toad.”