By Andrew Warshaw in Athens
September 15 – The new head of Germany’s football federation says the burgeoning 2006 World Cup scandal that has rocked the country’s image will not stop its pursuit of Euro 2024.
Reinhard Grindel (pictured), who took over the presidency of the federation in April, says the new regime should be trusted and has no association with any wrongdoing that might have gone on in the past.
Swiss federal prosecutors have opened criminal proceedings against German legend Franz Beckenbauer, who led the 2006 bid and organising committee, and three key members of his team. The four are being investigated over a suspect payment of €6.7 million to FIFA in 2005 in what has become a constant drip-drip of negative publicity for the national federation.
Beckenbauer is also being probed by FIFA’s ethics committee while key members of Germany’s previous administration have resigned and former DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach has been banned for a year although he is appealing.
But Grindel says his country, which deliberately stayed out of the bidding for the continent-wide Euro 2020 to focus on 2024, was still pressing ahead to host the event, with new UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin apparently keen to hand the tournament to a single host.
“We will make our bid transparent,” said Grindel on the sidelines of the UEFA presidential election. “We have new governance processes and everyone trusts us.”
“The people who are at the centre of the investigation have no influence now in the DFB and so we are not responsible for what happened in 2006. We have the stadiums, we have the infrastructure. We showed with the organisation of the (UEFA) under-19 tournament (in July) that we can do it, that we have great experience and so I think our bid will be a good bid.
Despite Grindel’s comments, the 2006 World Cup scandal shows little sign of quietening down and the image and reputation of Beckenbauer himself has just taken a further further hit, this time over a payment deal with a betting company that sponsored the tournament.
German media reports said Beckenbauer had been paid several million Euros as part of an agreement between Oddset and the DFB. The former World Cup winning coach and player appeared in adverts for Oddset during the tournament but had always insisted his work for the organising committee was unpaid.
But openly criticising the deal, Grindel said: “It was known that Franz Beckenbauer had been active in advertising for Oddset during the 2006 World Cup. It was not known to us that he received the noteworthy sum of €5.5 million out of the organising committee pot.”
“With this background, one can certainly not claim that his activities within the organising committee were on a volunteer basis. For me this frustrating issue is more proof the organising committee of the World Cup wanted to block out things, that there was no transparency there and that the public was partly misled.”
But Lotto Bavaria, in a statement put out by news agencies, gave a different version of events saying neither Oddset nor the German lottery administration had any contract with Beckenbauer. “As a result there was no fee agreement or fee payment. The contractual partner of Mr Beckenbauer was the DFB,” it said.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1714718717labto1714718717ofdlr1714718717owedi1714718717sni@w1714718717ahsra1714718717w.wer1714718717dna1714718717