Uefa Confirms Departure Payment Linked to Infantino

Uefa has confirmed it paid a departing employee – alleged to have been in a relationship with Gianni Infantino during his time as general secretary – a six-figure settlement and the fees for an MBA course, at a moment when the current Fifa president is already facing intense scrutiny over his governance plans.

The payment, first revealed by the Daily Telegraph, was made when Infantino was still at Uefa, where he worked for 16 years and served as general secretary from 2009 until his election as Fifa president in February 2016. The woman, a Uefa staff member at the time, is reported to have left the organisation with a significant “departure payment”.

In a carefully worded statement, Uefa did not address the nature of the alleged relationship, but it did acknowledge the financial settlement.

“We are aware of the allegations and can confirm a departure payment was made to the individual in question, coupled with the payment of fees for a MBA course at a local business school,” a Uefa spokesperson said. “The payment was in line with the regulations that existed for departing staff at the time.”

Uefa stressed that its internal rules have since been tightened.

“Such regulations have been tightened since 2016 and the current staff regulations – which apply to all UEFA employees at whatever level – reflect those found in a modern, high-profile organisation.”

Infantino, through a spokesman quoted by the Telegraph, “strongly denies these categorically untrue allegations”. The Press Association has contacted Fifa for comment.

The revelation lands at a fraught moment for the Fifa president. For more than a week, Infantino has been under sustained pressure over a contentious plan to bring private investment into a new company that would control Fifa’s major competitions, including both the men’s and women’s World Cups.

That project has already sparked open revolt in parts of the game. Uefa, along with two other continental confederations, rejected the proposal outright. The backlash was strong enough that Uefa went as far as to threaten a boycott of Fifa competitions by its 55 member associations unless the plan was abandoned.

Infantino, however, received a show of internal support on Wednesday when Fifa’s management board met in Morocco and backed him after discussions on the investment scheme. He issued an apology over the handling of the process, but not over the concept itself.

If the Fifa president hoped that would cool tempers in Europe, Uefa’s response was blunt. The European body said on Thursday that the statement from Morocco “changes nothing”, and its threat of a boycott remains on the table until the project is formally scrapped.

Now, with questions swirling over a past departure payment at Uefa and a present-day power struggle over the future of the World Cup, Infantino finds himself fighting battles on two fronts – one rooted in his previous life in Nyon, the other at the heart of his rule in Zurich.