By Andrew Warshaw
July 18 – While the focus is all on whether FIFA president Gianni Infantino is to be formally investigated, another ethics ruling is also apparently imminent– on former German FA chief and one-time prospective UEFA presidential candidate Wolfgang Niersbach (pictured left with Franz Beckenbauer).
Last May FIFA’s ethics committee recommended a two-year ban and a SFr30,000 fine be imposed on Niersbach following an investigation of Germany’s 2006 World Cup bid. Niersbach was one of six German officials probed in the wake of internal inquiry commissioned by the German FA and carried out by law firm Freshfields. He was specifically investigated by FIFA for “possible failure to report” unethical conduct by others and conflicts of interest.
Now, according to German reports, the sentence on Niersbach is about to be handed down by FIFA judges – and could be even more severe than the recommended punishment following the examination of fresh incriminating evidence.
The 65-year-old Niersbach is still somehow a member of both FIFA’s governing council and UEFA’s executive committee but that could be about to change if the weekend reports are true.
Niersbach was communications director of Germany’s 2006 World Cup bid and later rose to become head of the DFB. The entire affair that has seriously jeopardised his status was prompted by a €6.7 million payment alleged to have been a secret slush fund to buy votes but which German authorities insist was a return of a loan from former Adidas owner Robert Louis-Dreyfus. Germany ended up winning the ballot for 2006 hosting by a single vote over South Africa.
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