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The Fifa ethics committee has opened an investigation into Franz Beckenbauer and five other officials connected with Germany’s 2006 World Cup bid.
The world governing body named the other five as Wolfgang Niersbach, former president of the DFB (the German FA) and a current member of the Fifa and Uefa executive committees; Helmut Sandrock, former secretary general of the DFB; Theo Zwanziger, former president of the DFB; Horst R Schmidt, former secretary general of the DFB; and Stefan Hans, former chief financial officer of the DFB.
Fifa said that in the case of Beckenbauer, a former vice-president of the DFB, and president of the World Cup local organising committee, Zwanziger, Schmidt and Hans, “the investigatory chamber will investigate possible undue payments and contracts to gain an advantage in the 2006 Fifa World Cup host selection and the associated funding”, which could constitute a breach of its rules governing the offering and accepting of gifts and other benefits, and of bribery and corruption under the Fifa code of ethics.
It added that “in the cases of Messrs Niersbach and Sandrock, the investigatory chamber will investigate a possible failure to report a breach of the Fifa code of ethics”, which could constitute a breach of its general rules of conduct, its rules on loyalty, its rules on duty of disclosure, cooperating and reporting and its rules on conflicts of interest.
Niersbach, who stepped down as president of the DFB in November, has previously insisted that the committee behind the bid to host the World Cup had acted both “fairly” and “legally”.
He said: “We secured the World Cup through fair means. The World Cup was not bought. What was a summer fairytale remains a summer fairytale.”
He was responding to allegations published in Der Spiegel that the committee had established a slush fund of 10.3m Swiss francs (£4.8m) to buy votes and secure the right to stage the World Cup.
Niersbach said the money paid to Fifa had been made to secure “organisational support in grants to the tune of 250m Swiss francs” and not to bribe Fifa functionaries. “The awarding of the 2006 World Cup was completely legal. There were no slush funds, and no vote buying,” Niersbach said.
He was, however, later contradicted by Zwanziger, who said that the fund did indeed exist.
Beckenbauer has previously rejected the allegations. “I never gave money to anyone in order to acquire votes so that Germany is awarded the 2006 World Cup,” the former World Cup-winning player and coach said. “And I am certain that no other member of the bid committee did something like that.”
In November, German police had raided the Frankfurt headquarters of the DFB and searched the homes of officials on suspicion of tax evasion linked to the awarding of the tournament.
Documents and hard drives were seized from the DFB’s headquarters in Frankfurt, according to the German news agency DPA, which said 50 officers were involved.
The DFB released a statement saying it would cooperate with the investigation and that the organisation was not itself under suspicion.
