The FIFA scandals keep on multiplying, and today's latest developments suggest that it's not just the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding processes that are under suspicion. German news magazine Der Spiegel have today alleged that the committee in charge of organising the German bid for the 2006 World Cup, a bid that was eventually successful, set up a multi-million dollar slush fund with the express purpose of purchasing votes.
Germany alleged to have ‘bought’ 2006 FIFA World Cup hosting rights
According to the German media, their football authorities utilized a multi-million dollar slush fund to bribe FIFA members ahead of their successful bid to host the 2006 World Cup.
According to their information, former Adidas boss Robert Louis-Dreyfus, who died in 2009, operated the 10.3-million Swiss franc fund in a private capacity. This money did not appear on the budget of either the committee who organised the bid or the committee that organised the World Cup. Der Spiegel claim that the money was used to secure the votes of four representatives on FIFA's 24-member executive committee ahead of the vote, which took place in 2000 and which Germany eventually won by one vote after a surprise abstention in the final round.
The story also claims that in 2005, Louis-Dreyfus called in the loan, by this point worth €6.7 million. They allege that Franz Beckenbauer, Bayern Munich legend and then-chief of the organising committee, and Wolfgang Niersbach, current president of the German football association, were instrumental in ensuring that the money was repaid. They also allege that FIFA was used to facilitate this payment: Germany made a donation of €6.7 million for a planned gala ceremony, which was then cancelled, and the money was passed on to Louis-Dreyfus.
The full story -- in English -- is here.
This is not the first time that allegations of impropriety have been leveled at Germany over the bidding process for the 2006 World Cup. In June, newspaper Die Zeit alleged that German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder had authorised the sale of arms to the Saudi Arabian government in an attempt to influence the vote of the Saudi committee member. More bizarrely, at the time the bid was held, a satirical magazine faxed hoax bribes to various committee members, offering them sausages, cuckoo clocks and Black Forest ham.
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