adminBERLIN. — Lawyers for football legend Franz Beckenbauer yesterday rejected claims he was paid millions as chairman of Germany’s World Cup organising committee and sought to hide the sum from tax authorities.
News website Spiegel Online had reported that Beckenbauer drew a fee of more than five million euros ($5,6 million) and that he failed to report the payment to tax authorities.
The report was yet another embarrassment for Beckenbauer (71), who is being investigated by Swiss authorities in relation to corruption allegations over the awarding of the 2006 World Cup to Germany.
According to Spiegel, the payment to Beckenbauer was taken from a donation of 12 million euros made by a World Cup sponsor, the gambling company Oddset.
But Beckenbauer’s attorneys at Nesselhauf law firm rejected the claim, saying in a statement that the earning arose from his advertising work and that he had “been promptly taxed at his Austrian residence”.
Separately, Theo Zwanziger, who was then boss of the German Football Federation, also told Die Welt daily that the sum was “not payment for his work at the organisation committee”.
Rather, it was a fee for Beckenbauer’s PR work with the tournament’s sponsors, he said.
But the Spiegel claims had sparked anger from current DFB boss Reinhard Grindel, who accused the man nicknamed “the Kaiser” (the emperor) of lying and misleading the public. — AFP.
Online Reporter