The German FA has denied a media report that it is considering legal action against its former president. This comes amid questions over how Germany won the right to host the 2006 World Cup.
The German FA’s (DFB) vice president in charge of legal affairs, Rainer Koch, told the DPA news agency on Tuesday that a report that the football association was considering filing a criminal complaint against Theo Zwanziger for alleged breach of trust was untrue.
“The report published in the media today, which states that the DFB is considering legal action against former President Theo Zwanziger is wrong and has no basis in fact,” Koch said.
He was referring to a report first published by the German newspaper “Süddeutsche Zeitung” earlier on Tuesday, which cited unnamed DFB officials as saying that the association was considering its legal options with regard to a 2005 payment of 6.7 million euros ($7.6 million) to FIFA. Zwanziger was the co-president of the DFB at the time, along with the late Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, and was a vice president of the World Cup organizing committee, responsible for financial affairs.
Koch also noted that the DFB had referred the matter to its internal control committee for investigation, as well as an international commercial law firm.
“The DFB executive committee will only be in a position to take further decisions after receiving the results of the investigations,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from Zwanziger on either the “Süddeutsche” report or Koch’s subsequent statements.
German football has been rocked in recent days by allegations contained in a report in the latest issue of “Spiegel” newsmagazine, which suggested that slush funds were used to buy votes in its successful bid to host the 2006 World Cup.
This has been vehemently denied by current DFB President Wolfsgang Niersbach, as well as the president of the organizing committee for the 2006 World Cup, Franz Beckenbauer.
