Fifa and Gianni Infantino face being issued with subpoenas over their ties to Donald Trump after Democrats routed the US President’s administration in the midterm elections.

The Democrats’ majority in the House of Representatives hands them legal powers to compel testimony after Fifa and Infantino ignored previous attempts to investigate the close relationship between football’s governing body and Trump.

It could pile more pressure on Infantino as he seeks a fourth mandate as Fifa president, although is unlikely to yield results before the deadline for other candidates to declare later this month. 

Democrat Jamie Raskin, who is set to become chair of the House’s Judiciary Committee, warned this summer that probing what he called “bribes, kickbacks and sweetheart deals” involving Fifa, Infantino and Trump would be a priority.

“If and when Democrats take the House, this Committee will have the tools we need to get answers, expose corruption, protect sports fans against exorbitant and fraudulent charges and block this attempt to turn world soccer into a global financial shakedown,” he said.

Raskin posed a series of questions to Fifa and Infantino in July about the awarding of the “hilariously fake” Fifa Peace Prize to Trump last year and leasing scarcely used office space in Trump Tower in New York, which he said were part of a “brazen campaign to curry favor”.

The representative for Maryland dialled up the rhetoric after Infantino’s plans to sell stakes in the commercial rights to the World Cup to private investors including Josh Kushner, brother of Trump’s son in law, leaked just days later.

“Over the last few weeks, Fifa’s cozy relationship to Donald Trump has been floating to the top of the swamp of quid pro quo corruption in which the Trump Administration is swimming,” Raskin told the Guardian. “But now we see where all the bribes, kickbacks and sweetheart deals have been leading.”

Fifa and Infantino slammed over lack of co-operation

A House Judiciary spokesperson said in September that Fifa’s level of co-operation with its inquiries had been “woefully inadequate” and was “yet to turn over any priority documents requested by the committee – including those that would show how much money Fifa has given the Trump family – answer key questions around the awarding of the Fifa Peace Prize or explain how the Kushner-Infantino scheme to sell off the World Cup was conceived.”

Raskin has until now been unable to compel Infantino to appear before the Judiciary Committee, which has oversight of all federal laws, the Department of Justice and the FBI, but that is set to change after Democrats won a majority in both Houses.

Infantino shelved his World Cup sell-off plan amid a fierce and widespread backlash and has since apologised to the Fifa Council for sidelining it in talks over the scheme but has resisted requests from European governing body Uefa to hand over documents. 

He has also rejected calls to quit over the divisive episode and is currently set to stand unopposed for re-election as Fifa president in March, despite his former head of governance declaring him ineligible this week. 

Uefa launched legal action in multiple US courts in August in a bid to uncover materials from Fifa, its advisor JPMorgan and Kushner that could lead to a criminal mismanagement complaint to Swiss authorities but those efforts have so far met with resistance.

At the time of Raskin’s initial letter on 26 July, a White House spokesperson dismissed him as “lightweight” and “a stupid person’s idea of a smart person”.