FIFA opens formal probe into Germany 2006 World Cup bid win

FIFA-headquarters

By Paul Nicholson

March 22 – Following on from the report by law firm Freshfields into the German 2006 World Cup bid process, FIFA has opened its own investigation into six individuals over potential vote buying and failure to report a breach of the FIFA ethics code.

The Freshfields report, commissioned by the German FA (DFB), saw the law firm examine 128,000 electronic and other documents and interview 31 people but unable to “present a conclusive picture”.

“You could connect the payment with the FIFA re-election of Blatter or for the 2006 vote but that would be pure speculation,” said Freshfields.

However, FIFA is clear that there is more to be investigated saying in a press release: “After examining the Freshfields report commissioned by the German Football Association (DFB), the investigatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee has decided to open formal proceedings … in the context of the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ host selection and its associated funding.”

Feshfields had said it had encountered several “hurdles” in its investigation, including missing electronic information, deleted emails, files that weren’t accessible as well as being unable to interview certain people. One of these was FIFA’s then general secretary Urs Linsi whose name appeared 58 times in the report.

“(…) Past or current FIFA officials as Urs Linsi (…) we have with regard to the investigation of the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s Office and the prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt am Main can not ask,” said the report.

FIFA itself may not have the same restrictions within its investigations and while Linsi is not mentioned as being under investigation by FIFA himself, Germany’s highest profile football administrators at the time are.

In its press release FIFA names the individuals – a virtual who’s who of German federation executives – as:

  • Wolfgang Niersbach, former president of the DFB, vice-president of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Local Organising Committee (LOC) and current member of the FIFA and UEFA Executive Committees
  • Helmut Sandrock, former secretary general of the DFB and tournament director of the LOC
  • Franz Beckenbauer, former vice-president of the DFB, president of the LOC and former member of the FIFA Executive Committee
  • Theo Zwanziger, former president of the DFB, vice-president of the LOC and former member of the FIFA and UEFA Executive Committees
  • Horst R. Schmidt, former secretary general of the DFB and vice-president of the LOC
  • Stefan Hans, former chief financial officer of the DFB and chief financial officer of the LOC

FIFA says that chairman of the investigatory chamber, Dr Cornel Borbély, will lead the investigation proceedings as the chief of the investigation and that the list of possible violations may be supplemented as additional information becomes available.

At the centre of the investigation is likely to be payments and those playing a role in the movement of SFr10million from the Germans that ended up in Qatar in an account of a company owned by Mohammed Bin Hammam.

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