By Andrew Warshaw
October 27 – The 2006 World Cup slush fund saga has taken an intriguing twist with Franz Beckenbauer, who led Germany’s organising committee, accepting responsibility for the German Football Association’s “mistake” in making a payment of €6.7 million to FIFA towards securing a grant for staging costs – but again denied the money was used in any way to buy votes.
Der Spiegel magazine earlier this month revealed details of the payment to FIFA in 2005 which the magazine claimed was in return for votes five years earlier to secure the right to stage the tournament. The German FA (DFB) has confirmed the payment was made and has launched an internal investigation.
The finger has been pointed at both Beckenbauer (pictured left) and current DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach (pictured right), the 2006 World Cup communications chief, who has been at pains to explain the nuances of the infamous payment. Beckenbauer has previously issued a brief denial of any wrongdoing but has now given more details.
“I, as the president of the organisation committee at the time, carry the responsibility for this mistake,” Beckenbauer said in a statement. “In order to obtain financial support from FIFAthose involved went ahead with a proposal from FIFA’s finance commission that in today’s eyes, should have been rejected. No votes were bought in order to win the right to stage the 2006 World Cup.”
DFB vice-president Peter Freymuth said he did not see any reason why Niersbach should step down. “There was and there is no call for him to resign,” Freymuth told the Rheinische Post newspaper. “Nobody at the DFB is looking for a successor to him either. It certainly isn’t a good time for the association but we as a team are insisting on this being cleared up transparently and Wolfgang Niersbach, as president, is part of that.
“We want to and will continue with him. Clearly there are others who are not so interested in this being cleared up and are only intent on causing disturbances.”
Although Beckenbauer and Niersbach are vehemently sticking to their story that there was no vote-buying plot, Niersbach’s predecessor both at the DFB and at FIFA and UEFA, Theo Zwanziger, has already gone on record as thinking very differently. Certainly, no plausible explanation has yet been offered as to why the organising committee arranged to pay the €6.7 million, via FIFA, to the late former Adidas owner and ceo Robert Louis-Dreyfus. Der Spiegel alleges that Louis-Dreyfus made the loan to finance the slush fund.
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