{"id":626926,"date":"2026-08-08T10:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/626926\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T10:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:49:12","slug":"uefa-confirms-departure-payment-to-alleged-lover-of-gianni-infantino-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/626926\/","title":{"rendered":"Uefa confirms \u2018departure payment\u2019 to alleged lover of Gianni Infantino \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uefa has confirmed a \u201cdeparture payment\u201d was made to a woman employee who is alleged to have been in a relationship with Gianni Infantino<\/a> while he was the organisation\u2019s general secretary.<\/p>\n

The Daily Telegraph reported on Friday night that the woman received a six-figure sum following the alleged relationship with current Fifa president Infantino.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Uefa confirmed a payment was made along with covering the fees for an MBA course, which it said was \u201cin line\u201d with regulations at the time.<\/p>\n

The report comes as pressure mounts on Infantino<\/a> following his plan to seek private investment in a company which would run Fifa\u2019s competitions, including the men\u2019s and women\u2019s World Cups<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Infantino worked at Uefa for 16 years and was its general secretary from 2009 before being elected as Fifa president in February 2016.<\/p>\n

A Uefa spokesperson said: \u201cWe are aware of the allegations and can confirm a departure payment was made to the individual in question, coupled with the payment of fees for a MBA course at a local business school. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe payment was in line with the regulations that existed for departing staff at the time. <\/p>\n

\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 organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the now Fifa president told the Telegraph that Infantino \u201cstrongly denies these categorically untrue allegations\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Press Association has also contacted Fifa for comment.<\/p>\n

Infantino has found himself under pressure for over a week following a controversial plan<\/a> to sell stakes to private investors in a company to run the World Cup.<\/p>\n

The plan was rejected by Uefa and two other continental confederations. On Wednesday, Infantino was backed by Fifa\u2019s management board following a meeting in Morocco and issued an apology over the process.<\/p>\n

Uefa\u2019s threat for its 55 member countries to boycott Fifa competitions until the plan was scrapped remains, with the European confederation saying on Thursday that Wednesday\u2019s announcement \u201cchanges nothing\u201d. \u2013 PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Uefa has confirmed a \u201cdeparture payment\u201d was made to a woman employee who is alleged to have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,34476,74963,19,17,132,19413],"class_list":["post-626926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-eire","tag-fifa","tag-gianni-infantino","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports","tag-uefa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117059503189292873","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}