Investigation found earlier contact between Infantino and prosecutor

Paris: A lawyer friend of FIFA chief Gianni Infantino met with Swiss public prosecutor Michael Lauber in 2015 to find out if Infantino, who was planning to run for the FIFA presidency, was the target of a corruption investigation, French daily Le Monde reported on Sunday.

The newspaper said that the information came from the report by the ethics body (AS-MPC)that oversees Swiss ministries into Lauber's dealings with Infantino.

"Mr Infantino had an interest in finding out whether the proceedings were directed at him," the report said, adding that "Mr Infantino was considering running for the presidency of FIFA at the time."

It said Infantino also wanted to find out if two potential presidential rivals were being investigated. Their names are crossed out in the copy of the report obtained by Le Monde.

According to the report, a meeting between Lauber, who is in charge of the investigation into FIFA corruption, which opened in May 2015, and Rinaldo Arnold, senior prosecutor for the Upper Valais canton and a friend of Infantino, took place on July 8, 2015.

While the two said they had discussed "general questions of criminal procedure", the AS-MPC said that "the investigation into FIFA was discussed." The AS-MPC has been investigating possible collusion between Infantino and Lauber and on Wednesday cut eight per cent from the prosecutor's salary.

The AS-MPC investigated three meetings between Infantino and Lauber, finding that those two 2016 contacts, held shortly after Infantino took charge of FIFA were "not problematic". But, Lauber told the oversight body he had had no other informal contacts with Infantino — something that turned out not to be the case.

On Wednesday, AS-MPC said it had evidence of a third Lauber-Infantino meeting

in 2017.