Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

International Football

Pressure Mounts On DFB President Wolfgang Niersbach Over 2006 World Cup Scandal

Pressure on German FA (DFB) President Wolfgang Niersbach "increased considerably on Wednesday after tax raids a day earlier" on the world's largest football federation in relation to a World Cup 2006 payment to FIFA "stunned the nation," according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. At "the heart of the investigation" is a €6.7M payment from the DFB to FIFA that German magazine Der Spiegel claimed was a return on a loan from then adidas CEO Robert-Louis Dreyfus to "help buy votes for Germany's World Cup bid at the FIFA election" in '00. Both the DFB and Niersbach, as well as then-organizing committee President Franz Beckenbauer, "have rejected the votes-for-cash claims." German politicians "are demanding explanations and urging the DFB to come clean." Parliamentary Committee on Sport President Dagmar Freitag said, "This is the right way to bring light into the darkness" (REUTERS, 11/4). The London GUARDIAN & AP reported the Frankfurt prosecutors' office said that Beckenbauer "is not a target in the tax evasion investigation connected to the 2006 World Cup." Beckenbauer was the president of the organizing committee but the prosecutors said that "he had nothing to do with the tax declaration and was therefore not under investigation." The authorities on Tuesday searched the DFB HQ and the homes of Niersbach, former DFB President Theo Zwanziger and former DFB Treasurer Horst R. Schmidt (GUARDIAN, 11/4).

INTEGRITY CHECK: The PA reported FIFA's electoral committee "will not carry out an integrity check on Michel Platini" until after the disciplinary process surrounding a £1.3M payment made to him by world football's governing body is complete. An announcement on integrity checks for six of the seven FIFA presidential hopefuls "will be made by the end of the week." Another presidential candidate, Asian Football Confederation President Sheikh Salman, "has had complaints about his candidature lodged with FIFA's ethics and electoral committees by human rights groups." The groups claim that he was "involved in abuses of pro-democracy campaigners in Bahrain" in '11. He "has strongly denied the allegation" (PA, 11/4). The AP reported Brazilian FIFA Official José Maria Marin, a key organizer of the 2014 World Cup, "pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to U.S. charges stemming from a sprawling bribery case" that has scandalized the football world. Marin appeared in federal court in Brooklyn "following his extradition from Switzerland." A judge agreed to release the 83-year-old defendant on a $15M bond and "let him live with tight restrictions" in a N.Y. apartment until his case is resolved (AP, 11/3). 

NEUTRAL GROUND: REUTERS' Brian Homewood wrote FIFA reversed its decision to allow Palestine to host Thursday's World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia at home, "ordered that it be played on neutral territory and postponed the game until Monday." FIFA said that the decision "followed a meeting held in Palestine Tuesday between FIFA's security officer and local authorities, after which the Palestine government confirmed that it could no longer guarantee the safety and security around the matches in question." FIFA said that the Saudi Arabia fixture "would be played on Nov. 9 and the Malaysia match would be played on Nov. 12 as planned" (REUTERS, 11/4). The AAP reported the Socceroos' "crunch World Cup qualifier with Bangladesh in Dhaka later this month will be subject to a last-minute security summit" with FIFA. A key security official from the world governing body will "meet with a delegation from the football associations of both countries in Dhaka on Saturday to assess plans" for the Nov. 17 match (AAP, 11/4). 

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2015/11/05/International-Football/DFB-Scandal.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2015/11/05/International-Football/DFB-Scandal.aspx

CLOSE