German FA (DFB) President Wolfgang Niersbach "announced his resignation following a meeting of the association's board at its Frankfurt headquarters on Monday," according to DW.
The resignation "comes amid a controversy" over a '05 payment of €6.7M made to FIFA linked to the 2006 World Cup.
Niersbach: "I have recognized the time has come to take the political responsibility for events around the 2006 World Cup." He noted that the board "had not withdrawn its support for him and that it was his decision to step down so that the office of the DFB president would not be tarnished."
Niersbach stressed that he had "absolutely no knowledge of the background to the cash flow" under investigation. He said he believed "he was beyond reproach in the affair despite taking the 'political responsibility' for it." He said,
"It is all the more depressing and painful for me to be confronted with transactions in which I was not involved and for which many questions also remain open for me." The DFB's two VPs, Reinhard Rauball and Rainer Koch, "are to take over the president's duties on an interim basis."
Despite his resignation as DFB president, Niersbach "is to retain his posts on the Executive Committees of both FIFA and the European governing body, UEFA."
In his statement, Koch said that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the law firm hired by the DFB to look into the affair, "had identified out a number of points that need further clarification." Without giving any details, Koch said, "They give us cause to say that we'll have to look very closely into the circumstances of how the 2006 World Cup was awarded" (DW, 11/9).
