German police have raided the Frankfurt headquarters of Germany’s football association, the DFB, and searched the private homes of officials on suspicion of tax evasion linked to the awarding of the 2006 World Cup.
“Prosecutors in Frankfurt have opened investigations on suspicion of serious tax evasion linked to the awarding of the football championship in 2006 and the transfer of €6.7m of the organising committee for the German Football Association (DFB) to the Fifa football association,” said a prosecutor in a statement.
Bild had reported that the homes of the DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach and of the former president Theo Zwanziger had been raided.
The DFB was not available for comment after several attempts by Reuters.
Niersbach has insisted previously that the committee behind the 2006 bid had acted both “fairly” and “legally”.
“We secured the World Cup through fair means,” he said. “The World Cup was not bought. What was a summer fairytale remains a summer fairytale.”
Niersbach had been responding to allegations published in Der Spiegel that Germany’s World Cup bidding committee had established a slush fund in order to secure votes.
“The awarding of the 2006 World Cup was completely legal. There were no slush funds, and no vote buying,” Niersbach said.
Niersbach, 64, said the 10.3m Swiss francs 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 DFB had denied wrongdoing and said it had set up its own investigation into the payment. It said its inquiry had not found any evidence of wrongdoing, adding that it was also investigating whether it had any right to claim that money back, should it be proven that it was not used for its stated purpose.
“The DFB has not found even the slightest indications of irregularities during our investigation,” it said. “At the same time, there have been no indications at all of votes being bought from delegates as part of the bidding process.
“The payment [of €6.7m to Fifa in 2005] was in no way connected with obtaining the [World Cup] five years earlier.”
No comments:
Post a Comment