Among the 11.5 million documents unearthed in the Panama Papers are contracts between UEFA and a company set up in the small tax haven of Niue. That company, Cross Trading, is a subsidiary of Full Play, a company owned by Hugo Jinkis, who was previously indicted in the U.S. Justice Department's wide-sweeping corruption case against some of the highest rollers in world soccer. The Justice Department alleged that Jinkis secured broadcasting rights with millions of dollars worth of bribes and kickbacks to international soccer executives. Jinkis and his son Mariano are currently under house arrest in Argentina. This is bad news for FIFA and it's new president, Gianni Infantino.UEFA has previously stated they had no dealings with persons or entities involved in the corruption scandal, but the Panama Papers, and documents reviewed by The Guardian, show differently. In contracts covering the years 2006-2009, while Infantino was working there, UEFA sold exclusive Champions League rights to Cross Trading for broadcast in Ecuador for $111,000. Cross Trading then immediately flipped the rights to an Ecuadorean company Teleamazones, for $311,170. Infantino, who began working at UEFA in 2000, was named Director of Legal Affairs and Club Licensing Division in 2004.UEFA claims the deals were legitimate, and they had no way of knowing Jinkis would get indicted nearly a decade later and further points out that while the documents may show a whole lot of smoke, there is no fire there. UEFA also stated that Cross Trading was presented as an agent of sorts for Teleamazones, specifically authorized to enter into these sorts of deals for the company.
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UEFA did not address why they previously denied any connection to the corruption scandal, but said any subsequent deals between Cross Trading and Teleamazones was "their business." That is also basically what FIFA had to say when asked about the deal: it's UEFA's problem, not FIFA's. FIFA even qualified its defense of Infantino—"to the best of his knowledge Gianni Infantino had no dealings in his time at Uefa with any of the persons mentioned"—saying it was based on information provided by UEFA. That's a hell of a sentence to break down. One governing body, speaking for an individual, said that individual, to the best of his knowledge, had no dealings with these people while at his former job. According to his former job.This, of course, is exactly how these corporate gymnastics are supposed to work: obfuscate, and make it impossible to ever prove anything untoward was happening. Unfortunately for FIFA and World Soccer in general, they have long since lost the benefit of the doubt. Gianni Infantino may have run on the reform candidate platform, but this revelation is not so much a shock as it is the other shoe dropping.[Guardian]It said the rights were sold "pursuant to an open, competitive, tender process", and that the offer from Teleamazonas/Cross Trading was 20% higher than the next best bid.
"There is no suggestion whatsoever of any Uefa official or marketing partner taking any form of bribe or kickback, whether in relation to this tiny deal, or any other commercial transaction," it said.
Uefa added: "The TV contract in question was signed by Gianni Infantino since he was one of several Uefa directors empowered to sign contracts at the time. As you will have observed, the contract was also co-signed by another Uefa director. It's standard practice."