KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: The judicial pressure building up in Switzerland against Attorney-General Michael Lauber is threatening to turn its focus on FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

The presidencies of the National Council and the Council of States have asked the federal prosecutor’s office to appoint a special investigator to examine whether the three complaints lodged against Lauber by the Bern public prosecutor’s office could prompt a criminal investigation.

On June 4, the public prosecutor’s office of the canton of Bern registered with the Federal Assembly three criminal complains against Lauber who has been at the centre of controversy over secret meetings with world football supremo Infantino.

One of the complaints alleges Infantino had incited Lauber into abuse of power, the violation of professional secrecy and the obstruction of criminal proceedings.

FIFA has rejected all the allegations.

Separately a row has broken out over who pays the court costs of the failed attempt to prosecute three former German federation officials and the ex-general secretary of FIFA over a mystery payment linked to the 2006 World Cup.

The case collapsed in April after restrictions prompted by the coronavirus pandemic took the process beyond the statute of limitations deadline.

The German officials were former DFB presidents Theo Zwanziger and Wolfgang Niersbach, ex-general secretary Horst R Schmidt and Swiss ex-FIFA director Urs Linsi.

A prosecutors’ office claim for costs – like to total hundreds of thousands of Swiss francs – has been lodged against the defendants for wilfuklly stalling the trial.

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