German FA chief leaves questions unanswered over 2006 World Cup cash

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German Football Association (DFB) President Wolfgang Niersbach on Thursday said he could not answer some questions regarding the flow of 6.7 million euros ($7.5 million) to world governing body FIFA before the 2006 World Cup.

He said he hoped an ongoing investigation would provide them.

Niersbach, in a hastily arranged news conference at the DFB headquarters, again rejected claims made by magazine Der Spiegel last week that an alleged slush fund had been used to buy votes in 2000 in favour of Germany’s 2006 World Cup bid.

But he said he was unable to fully explain the matter of the money that was paid to FIFA in 2005 as part of what the DFB has said was for a cultural programme during the tournament.

“I don’t want it to look like I am dodging questions … but today I cannot give you a complete explanation. There are open questions and that is why we asked the legal firm (last week) to investigate it”, Niersbach told reporters.

The president of the world’s biggest football association said he still had to get the full picture of how the amount was transferred to FIFA.

“There are question marks regarding this process that I have as well,” he said.

Der Spiegel reported on Friday that Germany’s bid committee for the 2006 World Cup had tapped into a secret fund to buy votes, alleging it had been set up with money from late Adidas CEO Robert Louis-Dreyfus.

Der Spiegel reported that those aware of the alleged slush fund had included Franz Beckenbauer, head of the 2006 organising committee and former World Cup winning player and coach, and Niersbach, who was a vice president of the committee.

“The main issue is what I underlined last week. That everything was legal with the awarding of the 2006 World Cup. No slush funds and no bought votes. This allegation … is not true,” Niersbach said.

He said the money was demanded by FIFA’s finance committee in order to pay out a contribution of 170 million euros towards the German’s organisational budget with the German organising committee only just starting to generate revenues.

Asked why FIFA needed 6.7 million euros to pay out a much higher sum, Niersbach shrugged his shoulders and said: “I do not know that.”

He said the German organisers had not been given money directly by Louis-Dreyfus but instead it was FIFA’s finance commission that got the money from the French businessman with the organisers paying it back to FIFA in 2005.

The DFB has already launched an investigation into the 2005 payment of the amount in question to FIFA saying they wanted to see if the money paid to FIFA did go towards paying for a cultural programme that was part of the World Cup as was initially intended.

Niersbach on Thursday said he did not know how the money was used by FIFA once it was transferred by the Germans.

He said Beckenbauer had initially vouched for the amount with his own personal wealth but his manager convinced him not to do so and then proceeded to set up contact with Louis-Dreyfus who took over the payment to FIFA.

Niersbach repeatedly said he was not aware of all the details of this story.

Beckenbauer is being investigated by FIFA for non-cooperation in relation with the 2018 and 2022 World Cup elections, controversially won by Russia and Qatar respectively.

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Louise Ireland)