By Andrew Warshaw
September 8 – The deepening probe into Germany’s 2006 World Cup bid has taken yet another twist with the news that FIFA’s ethics watchdog is opening formal proceedings against former DFB secretary general Helmut Sandrock (pictured).
Sandrock, who was a prominent member of the Local Organising Committee, resigned from the DFB in February a week before the release of an internally commissioned report into alleged dubious activities surrounding Germany’s 2006 campaign. He has been the subject of an investigation by FIFA virtually ever since, along with five other senior officials, most notably Franz Beckenbauer.
Now the investigatory chamber of FIFA’s Ethics Committee has ruled Sandrock violated its code governing conduct, loyalty and duty of disclosure, cooperation and reporting and recommended a fine of CHF 50,000 and that Sandrock should perform “social work”.
“The adjudicatory chamber has studied the report of the investigatory chamber carefully and decided to institute formal adjudicatory proceedings against Mr Sandrock,” a FIFA statement said.
Late last year, tax authorities raided the DFB’s headquarters after it emerged the federation had made a secret payment of €6.7 million to FIFA in 2005. The German news weekly Der Spiegel, which broke the story, claimed the money had been used to set up a slush fund to buy votes in the 2006 World Cup bidding process, an allegation denied by German officials.
Last week, in arguably the most serious development to date, Swiss prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into the case. Ex-DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach, who is appealing against an already imposed one year ban, and Beckenbauer, who headed both the 2006 bid and the organising committee, were named as two of four individuals suspected of fraud, criminal mismanagement, money laundering and misappropriation.
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