Beckenbauer thought about retreating
Summer fairy tale trial escalates after angry verbal battle
March 28, 2024, 1:34 p.m
Suddenly the emotions in the summer fairy tale trial are boiling over: On the third day of the trial in the 2006 World Cup trial, things are getting high, heckling and accusations are flying. It’s about many millions of euros and Franz Beckenbauer – and the judge has to call for order.
Violent verbal battles, massive accusations, repeated calls for order from the judge: on the third day of the summer fairy tale trial at the Frankfurt/Main regional court, there was no sign of Easter peace. “Of course there are emotions involved,” said presiding judge Eva-Marie Distler: “But I appeal to mutual respect.”
This was preceded by constant heckling from the defendants and defense lawyers as well as accusations from the lawyers towards the public prosecutor’s office on Maundy Thursday. It was about “cynicism” and “dishonesty”. The prosecution representatives, for their part, commented on the statements made by a representative of the German Football Association (DFB) as “nonsense”.
The statements by the tax lawyer Jan Olaf Leisner, commissioned by the association, had previously made it clear that the DFB still hopes for a tax refund worth millions through a corresponding outcome of the process. Leisner explained that the payment of the ominous 6.7 million euros was actually a “business expense”. Their “history and use of the funds” are “tax irrelevant.”
Zwanziger, Niersbach, Schmidt
The investigation into the opaque money flows surrounding the 2006 World Cup has been dragging on for several years. The third day of negotiations in Frankfurt also focused on the 6.7 million euros that the DFB declared as operating expenses for a gala. The money was allegedly transferred in 2005 by the World Cup organizing committee via the world association FIFA to the former adidas boss and now deceased Robert Louis-Dreyfus. Exactly this sum had obviously flowed to Qatar three years earlier in the form of advance payments from Franz Beckenbauer and Louis-Dreyfus to the former FIFA official Mohamed bin Hammam.
The DFB’s non-profit status was retroactively revoked for 2006. If the court follows the association’s argument, the association could hope for a repayment of around 22 million euros.
Three former top DFB officials have been charged in Frankfurt. The former presidents Theo Zwanziger and Wolfgang Niersbach as well as the long-standing general secretary Horst R. Schmidt are charged with “evading or aiding in the evasion of corporation tax, solidarity surcharge, trade tax and sales tax for the year 2006 in the amount of over 13.7 million euros in favor of the DFB”. burden placed.
Niersbach, Zwanziger and Schmidt, who like the late Beckenbauer were members of the World Cup organizing committee, reject the allegations. Leisner called the charges “completely unfounded.”
The judge has to keep things in order
The public prosecutor’s office, on the other hand, violently attacked the defendants after their previous statements. There is currently no basis for an out-of-court settlement. Prosecutor Jesco Kümmel described Leisner’s statements as “nonsense”.
When it came to a protocol of Schmidt’s statements in the course of the internal DFB investigations by the service provider Esecon in 2021, verbal sparks finally flew. The judge felt compelled to call the defense to order.
The trial continues on April 15. Then, among others, Honorary President Uli Hoeneß from FC Bayern will testify. The interrogations of former DFB President Fritz Keller, former FIFA Secretary General Urs Linsi and ex-national player Günter Netzer are also planned for later in the trial.
For Beckenbauer the matter got “over his head”
Franz Beckenbauer is said to have threatened to resign amid the turmoil surrounding the controversial million-dollar payment before the 2006 World Cup. This emerges from statements by DFB lawyer Leisner. The then OC boss Beckenbauer expressed thoughts of resigning at a meeting because the matter was “growing over his head”.
According to Leisner, Netzer, as Louis-Dreyfus’s business partner, repeatedly urged the DFB to repay the loan. The association saw the danger that Beckenbauer would become the face of German football and the World Cup.