BERN: FIFA president Gianni Infantino was due to face more questioning today by two Swiss special prosecutors in the saga over who met who and where and why before he launched his bid for the top job in world football.

Infantino has just returned to Switzerland after glorying in the conclusion of the the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar and then courting controversy with his statements and behaviour at the funeral of Pele in Brazil.

Infantino proposed that a stadium in every country should be renamed after the late Brazilian triple World Cup winner then attracted criticism after taking a selfie at the funeral; he responded that he done so only at the request of the family.

Now it is back to the challenges of the day job which Infantino won in the presidential election in 2016.

Infantino is under investigation by the Swiss judicial authorities over an “incitement to abuse of authority, violation of official secrecy and obstruction of criminal action.”

The prosecutors, Ulrich Weder and Hans Maurer, had already interviewed Infantino last spring. The case concerns then-secret meetings which Infantino undertook with the then Attorney-General Michael Lauber when the Justice Department was launching inquiries into events arising out of the FIFAGate scandal.

Subsequently Michel Platini, then UEFA president and favourite to take over FIFA, was suspended over an unconnected case concerning a long-delayed payment from the world governing body and its head Sepp Blatter. Platini and Blatter were cleared only last year of criminal charges arising from the payment.

FIFA has consistently refused to make any comment on an ongoing legal matter.

##########