FIFA's Infantino suspected of intervening to stop probe: report

FIFA president Gianni Infantino is suspected of having intervened with Switzerland's attorney general to try to get an investigation dropped, a Swiss newspaper alleged on Monday.

The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) launched an investigation in early 2016, shortly after Infantino was elected president of world football's governing body, about his awarding of a television rights contract to an offshore company in his previous role as UEFA's legal affairs director.

According to the Tribune de Geneve newspaper, Infantino was "worried" about this investigation and wrote to his childhood friend, Rinaldo Arnold, who had become a senior prosecutor in Switzerland's Haut-Valais region where they grew up.

"I will try to explain to the OAG that it is in my interests that everything should be cleared up as soon as possible, that it be clearly stated that I have nothing to do with this matter," he wrote in an email cited by the newspaper.

Arnold, who had helped to set up a first meeting between Infantino and Attorney General Michael Lauber, replied: "What is important is the meeting in two weeks' time. If you like, I can come with you again."