A Swiss prosecutor investigating corruption in football met in secret with FIFA president Gianni Infantino, German and Swiss media alleged, further fuelling allegations of collusion between football's world governing body and Swiss investigators.
Citing unnamed sources, German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) and Switzerland's Luzerner Zeitung suggested that Cedric Remund, 38, was the previously unidentified fifth person at a secret meeting with Infantino and Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber at the Schweizerhof Hotel in Bern on June 16, 2017.
If proven, the allegation could potentially compromise a number of high-profile football corruption probes of which Remund was directly in charge, claimed SZ.
According to the newspaper, the June 2017 meeting with Infantino was also attended by Lauber, his spokesman Andre Marty and Rinaldo Arnold, a friend of Infantino and senior prosecutor for the Upper Valais canton.
Lauber, who is in charge of the investigation into FIFA corruption which opened in 2015, had previously denied the meeting to the ethics body (AS-MPC) that oversees Swiss ministries during a disciplinary hearing.
Yet an AS-MPC report in March said the meeting had taken place, and accused Lauber of "breaching several of his professional obligations," including "repeatedly not telling the truth" and "acting disloyally."