FRANKFURT: FIFA president Gianni Infantino remains under attack from German magazine Der Spiegel over the contentious issue of whether the ethics chamber was investigating him when its bosses were both sacked.

Spiegel has claimed in its latest issue that world football federation FIFA had issued a misleading statement when it denied any inquiry had been set under way.

María Claudia Rojas, the new Colombian chair of the ethics committee’s investigative chamber has confirmed the FIFA version.

However Spiegel has suggested that her predecessor, Cornel Borbely, retains papers which state otherwise.

Spiegel said Rojas had written to Borbély, on June 12, asking for the handing over of the documents not at the FIFA headquarters.

Three days later Borbély requested a meeting to discuss the transfer of the documents. His request, however, remained unanswered.

Speculation has swirled around Infantino’s role in the ousting of veteran Issa Hayatou as president of the African confederationh at its election congress earlier this year.

Reinhard Grindel, president of the German federation and a new member of FIFA’s governing council, has expressed disquiet over the uncertainty.

He told Spiegel he had not yet had the opportunity to talk to Rojas personally and did not know whether there had been an investigation into  Infantino’s conduct.

However Grindel considered that, if the allegations were correct, Infantino should not have been enabled to take the leading role he did in sacking Borbely and German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert from their ethics chamber roles.

FIFA has insisted several times that no investigation had ever been undertaken and it saw no point in continually reiterating the same denial.

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