Franz Beckenbauer is not a target in the tax evasion investigation connected to the 2006 World Cup, the Frankfurt prosecutors’ office has said.
Beckenbauer was the president of the organising committee but the prosecutors say he had nothing to do with the tax declaration and was therefore not under investigation. Beckenbauer lives in neighbouring Austria, but prosecutors said that was not a factor.
The authorities on Tuesday searched the headquarters of the German football federation, the DFB, and the homes of its president, Wolfgang Niersbach, predecessor Theo Zwanziger and former treasurer Horst R Schmidt, who are under investigation.
Documents and hard drives were seized from the DFB’s headquarters in Frankfurt, according to the German news agency DPA, which said 50 officers were involved.
“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 to the Fifa football association,” said prosecutors at the time. They said they suspected the association of failing to register the payment in tax returns.
The DFB released a statement saying it would cooperate with the investigation and that the organisation was not itself under suspicion.
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.
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”, an explanation that was endorsed by Schmidt in a statement to Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Der Spiegel had alleged that Germany’s World Cup bidding committee had established a slush fund with the money to buy World Cup votes. Niersbach denied that but Zwanziger has said that such a fund existed.
Beckenbauer last week admitted the DFB had made a “mistake” in paying the €6.7m but denied that the money was used to buy votes.
