{"id":807159,"date":"2026-08-08T19:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/807159\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:56:09","slug":"gianni-infantino-uefa-confirms-payout-to-ex-employee-amid-denials-of-affair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/807159\/","title":{"rendered":"Gianni Infantino:; UEFA confirms payout to ex-employee amid denials of affair"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n FIFA chief Gianni Infantino<\/a> is denying a report that inappropriate conduct was behind a six-figure \u201cdeparture payment\u201d made to a woman during his years as general secretary at the Union of European Football Associations.\n <\/p>\n

\n UEFA confirmed the woman\u2019s payout, noting that while it was not out of line at the time, internal regulations have since been \u201ctightened.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The British newspaper The Telegraph first reported allegations that the woman was paid because of an affair with the beleaguered head of world football.\n <\/p>\n

\n Infantino \u201cstrongly denies these allegations, and they are categorically untrue,\u201d a FIFA spokesperson told The Telegraph.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAny insinuation of inappropriate conduct or violation of statutes or regulations is defamatory,\u201d the statement added. CNN has reached out to FIFA for comment.\n <\/p>\n

\n Ever since Infantino and FIFA\u2019s controversial plans to sell partial commercial and operational rights to the World Cup were leaked two weeks ago, soccer\u2019s world governing body has come under immense pressure, even after those plans were scrapped.\n <\/p>\n

\n UEFA, which counts some of the world\u2019s most powerful soccer nations among its members, has threatened to boycott FIFA competitions, including the World Cup, and publicly declared its loss of confidence in Infantino\u2019s leadership.\n <\/p>\n

\n This latest chapter in soccer\u2019s civil war was sparked when The Telegraph published an article<\/a> Friday alleging that \u201cUEFA paid off an alleged mistress of Gianni Infantino while he was its general secretary.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The paper, citing multiple anonymous sources, claimed that Infantino had a \u201crelationship with a junior employee\u201d during his tenure at the helm of UEFA from 2009 to 2016. She was promoted to a \u201cmore lucrative managerial role,\u201d and received a \u201cpayment\u201d when she left the organization, the paper reported. UEFA also paid for her MBA course, the report added. She was not named in the report.\n <\/p>\n

\n In a statement to CNN, UEFA confirmed a \u201cdeparture payment was made to the individual in question, coupled with the payment of fees for an MBA course at a local business school.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe payment was in line with the regulations that existed for departing staff at the time,\u201d the organization added. \u201cSuch regulations have been tightened since 2016 and the current staff regulations \u2013 which apply to all UEFA employees at whatever level \u2013 reflect those found in a modern, high-profile organization.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The report adds to the firestorm facing Infantino as he grapples to save his position and shore up support for his previously rock-solid re-election campaign.\n <\/p>\n

\n Senior FIFA officials threw their support behind Infantino after a crisis meeting on Wednesday, but UEFA is still threatening to boycott future men\u2019s and women\u2019s World Cups. It doubled down on the threat even after the sell-off plans were jettisoned, saying it needs assurances that nothing like this will happen again.\n <\/p>\n

\n If that threat came to pass, it would hugely devalue any World Cup<\/a> since six of the current top 10 teams in both men\u2019s and women\u2019s soccer <\/a>would not compete in the tournament.\n <\/p>\n

\n FIFPRO, the players\u2019 union, has also said its confidence in FIFA\u2019s leadership \u201chas now been fundamentally broken.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n However, CONMEBOL, which oversees South American soccer and opposed the plans, has said it won\u2019t back an extraordinary congress to vote on Infantino\u2019s future and will follow the existing timeline for the presidential election, which is set for early next year.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Confederation of African Football, which is more dependent on the money FIFA distributes than other continental confederations, has backed Infantino.\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN\u2019s Ben Church and Thomas Schlachter contributed reporting.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FIFA chief Gianni Infantino is denying a report that inappropriate conduct was behind a six-figure \u201cdeparture payment\u201d made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-807159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}