Panama Papers Revelations See Gianni Infantino Dragged Into Scandal As Uefa Offices Are Raided

The fallout from the data leak continues.
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The offices of the European football body Uefa have been raided by police after Fifa President Gianni Infantino was implicated in the latest data leaked in the Panama Papers.

Uefa’s head office was raided at the request of the Swiss attorney general's office on Wednesday.

Evidence was handed over of a Champions League television rights contract - signed by current Infantino when he was Uefa legal director in 2006 - with an offshore marketing agency implicated in the Fifa bribery scandal, the Associated Press reported.

The attorney general’s office said that the raid was motivated by suspected criminal mismanagement and misappropriation.

It said that a separate location was also searched.

Fifa president Gianni Infantino has been implicated in data leaked in the Panama Papers
Fifa president Gianni Infantino has been implicated in data leaked in the Panama Papers
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Swiss prosecutors said "for the time being, no specific individual is being targeted by these proceedings" which focused on the "acquisition of television rights."

Infantino said that he was “dismayed” that he had been dragged into the scandal, saying that he would “not accept” his integrity being doubted.

In later statement, he said that he welcomed "any investigation conducted into this matter. For the sake of transparency and clarity, it is essential that all elements of this dossier are disclosed, as Uefa has done.

"Based on these documents, it is clear that all contractual matters were conducted properly by Uefa."

Infantino said he would provide further clarification if needed, adding: "It is in my interest and in the interest of football that everything should come to light."

After 17 scandal-hit years of Sepp Blatter's presidency, Infantino was elected as Fifa president six weeks ago promising a cleaner and more transparent future for the world soccer body.

Many people online expressed their exasperation at the news of the Panama Papers implication…

The revelations emerged when an investigation published by an international coalition of more than 100 media outlets, based on 11.5 million records of offshore holdings, revealed how celebrities, business leaders, criminals, sports stars and politicians from around the world use banks, law firms and offshore shell companies to hide their assets.

The list of names of those implicated is extensive and covers a multitude of nationalities. Among the countries with high profile figures named in the reports are the UK, Iceland, Ukraine, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Argentina.

Earlier this week, Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson stepped down after he was implicated in the scandal.

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