adminFRANKFURT. — Police raided offices of the German Football Federation (DFB) and homes of top officials yesterday over tax evasion allegations, as the scandal surrounding graft claims over Germany’s awarding of the 2006 World Cup widened.
About 50 officers swooped on “the DFB headquarters as well as at homes of three accused – the DFB president, former DFB president and former general secretary”, said a spokeswoman for prosecutors, without naming names.
The three are understood to be current DFB chief Wolfgang Niersbach, his predecessor Theo Zwanziger and ex-general secretary Horst Schmidt.
The raids came after the DFB was rocked by allegations in news magazine Der Spiegel last month that a 6.7-million-euro payment to FIFA was used to buy votes to secure the hosting of the 2006 World Cup.
At the vote in July 2000, Germany saw off South Africa by 12 votes to 11 – Charles Dempsey of New Zealand abstained – to win the right to stage the tournament finals.
Nadja Niesen, senior state prosecutor, said yesterday’s raids were carried out “over suspicions of tax evasion in a particularly serious case”, and related to the 6.7 million euro payment.
“The defendants are accused of submitting inaccurate tax returns in their previous responsibilities, and thereby shortchanging . . . taxes due for 2006 by a significant amount,” she said.
The prosecutor noted that the murky payment had been booked by the organising committee as part of its contribution to a FIFA cultural programme, when it was “actually used for other purposes”. — AFP.
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