FIFA lifted former exec committee member Franz Beckenbauer’s ban from all football-related activity for "failing to help an investigation of alleged corruption in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup votes," according to the AP. FIFA imposed the 90-day ban on June 13 "at the request of the ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia." Beckenbauer said at the time that "he was surprised by the ban, and received the questions only in complicated legal English." Beckenbauer then "pledged to answer the questions put to him in German and in writing," and his manager said on June 18 that the FIFA ethics committee received his answers to "all its questions" (AP, 6/27). The BBC reported in a statement released by Beckenbauer's manager Marcus Hoefl, Beckenbauer said, "I under-estimated the matter." Beckenbauer said that he blamed the fact that "such voluminous administrative things'' are usually dealt with by his management team. He added that, despite the lifting of the ban, Beckenbauer "will not be travelling to the World Cup taking place in Brazil" (BBC, 6/27). The INT'L BUSINESS TIMES' Lewis Dean reported Beckenbauer's involvement with the process "has been under the microscope since the Sunday Times published allegations of secret payments to Fifa members to swing the 2022 vote towards Qatar" (INT'L BUSINESS TIMES, 6/27).
