An investigation into Germany’s 2006 World Cup bidding scandal has "uncovered secret payments" totaling about £7M ($10M) by Franz Beckenbauer to Qatar’s FIFA member, according to Martyn Ziegler of the LONDON TIMES. The lawyer in charge of the investigations said that "he could not rule out that votes had been bought" -- Germany won FIFA’s vote to host the World Cup ahead of South Africa and England -- or "if the money had gone to support Sepp Blatter’s re-election" as FIFA president in '02. The payments by Beckenbauer, who was head of Germany’s World Cup bid and then the organizing committee, were made in '02 to Kemco Scaffolding, a company owned by Qatar’s Mohamed Bin Hammam, "who was banned for life" by FIFA in '12. At the time of the £7M payments, Bin Hammam was Blatter’s "most important supporter and helped him to win re-election" in '02 for a second term. He has "denied receiving the money." Christian Duve, of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the law firm that was commissioned by the German FA (DFB) to investigate the scandal, said, "We have no proof of vote buying but we also cannot rule it out. The payments landed somewhere in Qatar; this [company] is under the influence of Bin Hammam. But anything beyond that is speculation. We had the task of presenting the facts." The investigation found that a folder called "Fifa 2000" had gone missing from the DFB archives and that "numerous emails and other electronic information had been deleted." Backenbauer admitted "making mistakes but has strongly denied any wrongdoing" (LONDON TIMES, 3/5). REUTERS' Karolos Grohmann reported Beckenbauer "denied any wrongdoing on Saturday in an affair involving 2006 World Cup in Germany and said he knew nothing of a multi-million payment to a disgraced former FIFA official in Qatar." Beckenbauer said that there was "no attempt to buy votes" in '00 to get the World Cup awarded to Germany, a "claim echoed by the report by Freshfields law firm that found no proof of any vote buying." Beckenbauer said, "Definitely not for that. We did not buy votes. It (payment) was about a provision of security. In order to get a financial contribution from FIFA. Otherwise there was not be a World Cup in Germany." DFB interim CEO Rainer Koch on Friday said that he "still did not understand why the money was sent to FIFA." Beckenbauer: "In hindsight I may have made mistakes. But afterwards you are always smarter. But the World Cup was not bought" (REUTERS, 3/5). In London, Charles Sale reported the murky £5M ($7.1M) slush fund payment that "sparked investigations" -- not only by German football via Freshfields but also internally by FIFA's American lawyers Quinn Emmanuel -- was paid by the late adidas CEO Robert Louis Dreyfus to the DFB. The report found that payment was "falsely declared" by the 2006 World Cup organizing committee for funding an opening gala. Former DFB President Wolfgang Niersbach resigned late last year "as the allegations were made public." The report revealed how Niersbach had "been aware of the flow of the money before it became public knowledge" (DAILY MAIL, 3/4).
