FRANKFURT: New German football leader Reinhard Grindel has urged FIFA president Gianni Infantino to concentrate more on the task ahead and less on his own pay level writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

Last week the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published details of a discussion in FIFA Council on the eve of last month’s congress in Mexico City which included apparently petulant comments by the world federation’s new president over the remuneration issue.

Infantino revealed himself as upset at a cut in the president’s salary to $2m from the $3m enjoyed by predecessor Sepp Blatter. The row contributed to the resignation of audit and compliance chairman Domenico Scala and a perceived reversal of the reform programme.

The Mexico congress was the first since 46-year-old politician Grindel had been elected as new head of the DFB in succession to Wolfgang Niersbach who resigned last autumn over the German 2006 World Cup cash scandal.

Grindel, reviewing the Infantino pay issue in his first high-profile comment on FIFA politicsĀ , said: “The pay level for Blatter can not be the benchmark for the current FIFA president.

“I also hope to see the audit and compliance committee and governance commission getting back to work very soon – and independently – within FIFA.”

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