German football federation fined for tax evasion
The German soccer federation has been convicted of tax evasion related to its successful 2006 World Cup bid.
It brought an end of sorts yesterday to a 10-year process prompted by allegations that Germany used a slush fund to buy votes from FIFA executive committee members to be certain of hosting the tournament.
A regional court in Frankfurt fined the federation, known by its German acronym DFB, 110 000 euros (US$128 000) at the culmination of a nearly 16-month trial at the end of the investigation process.
Prosecutors had been pushing for a larger fine after accusing the DFB of failing to pay approximately 2.7 million euros (now US$3.1 million) in taxes related to its payment of 6.7 million euros (US$7.8 million) to FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, in April 2005.
That payment settled a loan that Germany great Franz Beckenbauer, the head of the World Cup organising committee, had accepted three years earlier from Robert Louis-Dreyfus, a former Adidas executive and then part-owner of the Infront marketing agency.
The money was channeled through a Swiss law firm to a Qatari company belonging to Mohammed Bin Hammam, then a member of FIFA’s Executive Committee.
The exact purpose of the money was never determined. – AP/Sports Reporter
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