The FIFA ethics committee opened a bribery investigation Tuesday into
German soccer great Franz Beckenbauer and other officials from the 2006
World Cup bid teamEthics prosecutors acted amid
rising suspicion of wrongdoing linked to the winning of hosting rights
in 2000, and irregular seven-figure payments years later.
Beckenbauer,
current FIFA executive committee member Wolfgang Niersbach and other
officials were targeted three weeks ago in an inquiry report by a law
firm commissioned by the German soccer federation.
The
new FIFA case picks up on that inquiry and relates to "the 2006 FIFA
World Cup host selection and its associated funding," ethics prosecutors
said in a statement.
Beckenbauer is among four officials linked
to suspect payments and contracts during the bidding process. Germany
won by beating South Africa, whose bid was supported by Nelson Mandela,
12-11 in a vote of FIFA executive committee members."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," the FIFA ethics committee said.
The other three German
officials linked to possible bribery are: Theo Zwanziger, who replaced
Beckenbauer on the FIFA executive committee in 2011; Horst Schmidt, vice
president of the World Cup organizing panel; and Stefan Hans, chief
financial officer for the organizers.
Last
month, a 361-page inquiry tried to explain a complex trail about
payments of 6.7 million euros ($7.3 million) and 10 million Swiss francs
($10 million) that linked Beckenbauer, then-FIFA president Sepp
Blatter, FIFA powerbroker Mohamed bin Hammam and Robert Louis-Dreyfus,
the late former Adidas executive and part owner of Swiss marketing
agency Infront.
The report,
by law firm Freshfields, pointed to a deeper involvement than suspected
of Beckenbauer — the only man to captain and coach World Cup-winning
teams who then organized a successful tournament.
FIFA
prosecutors have now put Niersbach and 2006 tournament director Helmut
Sandrock under investigation for "possible failure to report" unethical
conduct and conflicts of interest.
"The list of possible violations may be supplemented as additional information becomes available," FIFA ethics prosecutors said.
Investigations
by German prosecutors and tax officials of suspected tax evasion by the
German soccer federation led Niersbach and Sandrock to resign in recent
months as its president and general secretary, respectively.
Niersbach said he will "cooperate in every aspect" with the ethics commission, according to German news agency dpa.
Swiss
federal prosecutors are also investigating the 2006 World Cup
allegations as part of a wider probe of FIFA's business. It has already
put Blatter under criminal investigation for two separate acts of
suspected financial mismanagement.
Beckenbauer
is back under suspicion at FIFA one month after its ethics judges
sanctioned him in another case. He was warned and fined 7,000 Swiss
francs for refusing to co-operate with a FIFA ethics investigation of
the 2018-2022 World Cup bidding contests.
The former Bayern Munich and New York Cosmos great has publicly denied wrongdoing or that hosting votes were bought.
Beckenbauer,
now 70, resigned last week from a television analyst job with the Sky
Germany channel, citing the need for a break after being a public figure
for 50 years.
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