By Andrew Warshaw
November 23 – With public scrutiny intensifying over what he did and didn’t know regarding the alleged 2006 World Cup cash-for-votes scandal, Franz Beckenbauer, largely untouchable in recent weeks, is to be questioned on Tuesday by external lawyers in connection with the affair, according to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) newspaper.
The paper said Beckenbauer, head of Germany’s successful World Cup bid and of the organizing committee, will be quizzed on a contractual agreement offering “various services” including development aid and tickets which he signed with disgraced former CONCACAF president Jack Warner shortly before the vote in the summer of 2000.
Beckenbauer has already stated he knew nothing about claims of a €6.7 million vote-buying slush fund first laid bare by Der Spiegel magazine and which has led to the resignation of DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach.
Niersbach, a member of the executive committees of both FIFA and UEFA, had a key role in the German bid and stepped down from the DFB leadership “to take political responsibility”.
Der Spiegel claimed the payment from the German FA to FIFA was a return on a loan from then Adidas CEO Robert Louis-Dreyfus to help buy votes. Although rejecting any knowledge of such a scheme, Beckenbauer has previously admitted the payment to FIFA had been “a mistake in hindsight”.
According to the German media, Beckenbauer’s signature was on a draft contract also initialled by his right-hand man, Fedor Radmann. In the event the letter was not sent to Warner, recently banned for life by FIFA, but the matter nevertheless still raises questions over the methods used by Germany who pipped South Africa by one vote in a highly contentious ballot.
In an interview with SZ, Der Kaiser, all but retired these days and no longer a member of FIFA’s executive committee, said he was ready “at short notice in Frankfurt or wherever” to answer “all questions about the 2006 World Cup bid to the best of my knowledge and belief.”
The contract was reportedly dated 2 June, 2000, one month before the vote for 2006. Beckenbauer, who has largely kept his counsel since the slush fund claims hit the headlines, told the paper his actions were completely above board. “From today’s perspective it may look funny but back then we just had good intentions, ” he said. “I signed whatever was put in front of me.”
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