Gianni Infantino can't catch a break — and this time, it's not about the World Cup privatisation disaster.
The Telegraph has reported that during Infantino's tenure as UEFA secretary general, he allegedly had a relationship with a junior employee who was subsequently paid a six-figure severance sum by the governing body. UEFA has confirmed a departure payment was made, along with fees for an MBA course at a local business school, though insists it was "in line with the regulations that existed for departing staff at the time."
Infantino, married since 2001 with four daughters, allegedly promoted the woman to a management position while the relationship was ongoing. That detail matters. It shifts this from a private matter into a professional conduct question that UEFA clearly felt warranted a financial settlement.
Platini drew a line
Michel Platini, UEFA president at the time, reportedly confronted Infantino directly. According to a source cited by The Telegraph, people inside UEFA were pushing Platini to fire him outright: "He made a huge mistake and it almost cost him his career." Platini's reported ultimatum — either Infantino goes or she does — ended with her leaving and a pay-off being arranged.
FIFA has come out swinging in denial. A spokesperson called the allegations "categorically untrue" and "defamatory," stating no employee at either UEFA or FIFA has ever raised a complaint about Infantino's behaviour. That's a firm denial, but it doesn't address UEFA's own confirmation that a departure payment was made.
The timing could hardly be worse for the FIFA president. He's already been badly damaged by his attempt to hand the World Cup to Josh Kushner's private equity firm for $20 billion — a plan that prompted UEFA to unanimously threaten a full boycott of all FIFA competitions. Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation rejected it too. The proposal collapsed, and with it, a significant chunk of Infantino's authority.
The job protection scramble
Reports emerged this week that Infantino has been seeking talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, ostensibly about football as American soft power. An insider was blunt about the real motive: "We all know that it is about job protection. It is not about anything else at this point."
For anyone tracking FIFA governance markets or the broader political future of the organisation, the picture is now this: a president who failed his biggest commercial gambit, is allegedly lobbying the US administration to keep his seat, and is now facing fresh personal conduct allegations backed by a financial settlement his former employer has confirmed on record.
"The payment was in line with the regulations that existed for departing staff at the time," UEFA said. They've since tightened those regulations. That sentence does a lot of quiet work.
