Confidential emails obtained by the "Football Leaks" group following a hack on FIFA and shared with a consortium of media organisations, such as German magazine Der Spiegel, detail how Infantino influenced a rewrite of the code of ethics.

It included implementing a controversial 10-year statute of limitation for historical investigations into corruption and bribery.

Under FIFA rules, the Ethics Committee is supposed to operate separately from the worldwide governing body but a report in Der Spiegel highlights influence exerted by Infantino.

Der Spiegel cited emails exchanged between the FIFA President and Vassilios Skouris, who replaced Hans-Joachim Eckert as the head of the adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee following an alleged cull by Infantino, in December 2017.

According to the German publication, former European Court of Justice head Skouris sent an email to Infantino outlining a draft of the code developed with Colombian Maria Claudia Rojas, the chairperson of the investigatory chamber.

Infantino then replied with a series of changes and comments on the proposed code, Spiegel reported, which included a claim that too many "provisional investigations" had been opened against FIFA officials.

The revelations come after Infantino was accused of firing Eckert and Cornel Borbely, Rojas' predecessor, following being given the power to do so at the FIFA Congress in Bahrain in 2017.

In a statement following the publication of the information by the consortium, FIFA claimed none of the reports in Spiegel and other outlets "contains anything which would even remotely amount to a violation of any law, statute or regulation".

On the allegations involving Infantino and Skouris specifically, a spokesperson told Reuters that such exchanges between the two officials were "natural".

The report in Der Spiegel also casts doubt over Infantino's faith in FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura and the implementation of the "forward" programme, a key election pledge made by the Swiss-Italian which saw him promise to considerably increase the cash flow to Member Federations.

It includes correspondences from FIFA's chief strategist Kjetil Siem, which alleged the Norwegian highlighted "risks" with the way the programme was being carried out.

Emails sent in 2017 from Infantino show the FIFA President calling the payment of money to members under the "forward" programme "a massive failure".

FIFA attacked the media in a statement following the publication of the reports, claiming "one particular aim" was to "undermine the new leadership of FIFA and, in particular, President Gianni Infantino and secretary general Fatma Samoura".

"It comes as no surprise that some of those who have been removed, replaced, or who are unhappy, continue to spread false rumors and innuendo about the new leadership," the statement added. 

"We are aware that there are people who, out of frustration, would like to undermine FIFA, for their own self-interested reasons."