Germany's former top football official told a news magazine on Friday that "it was true that the country had used a secret 'slush fund' to pay bribes for the right to host the 2006 World Cup, contradicting repeated denials by his successor," according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. The comments by former German FA (DFB) President Theo Zwanziger "looked set to fuel a deepening crisis over the running of world football," whose governing body FIFA is the target of corruption investigations in Switzerland and the U.S. Zwanziger said, "It is clear that there was a slush fund for the German World Cup bid." He "brushed aside denials about the existence of the fund by Wolfgang Niersbach, the man now in charge of the association." Zwanziger said, "It is also clear that the current DFB president knew about it -- not, as he says, just a few weeks ago, but at least since 2005." He "did not say how and when he himself knew of the fund's existence, or why he believed Niersbach was aware of it." Niersbach said that "he could not fully explain a payment" of €6.7M from Germany's World Cup organizing committee to FIFA in '05. The DFB "has commissioned an investigation into that payment." Zwanziger, in charge of the DFB from '06-12, has had a poor relationship with Niersbach since he left office, "with the pair locked in a row over Niersbach's pension plan" (REUTERS, 10/23).
