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Theo Zwanziger accuses DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach of lying

Xinhua, October 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

Former DFB president Theo Zwanziger accused Wolfgang Niersbach of lying about the slush fund, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Friday.

One day after the German Football Association (DFB) president Wolfgang Niersbach rejected all allegations of bribery to secure Germany the World Cup hosting rights, former president Theo Zwanziger attacks his successor in an interview with Der Spiegel. "It is obvious that there was a slush fund involved in the German World Cup bid," he said.

It is another chapter in the bribery saga related to Germany's hosting bid. Der Spiegel revealed a week ago that Wolfgang Niersbach and Franz Beckenbauer, both part of the Germany's World Cup bidding committee, knew about a secret bank account that was filled with 6.7 million Euros by Adidas boss Robert-Louis Dreyfus.

According to the Spiegel report this bank account was used in the interest of the DFB to buy four votes of the 24-men FIFA Executive Committee for the rights to host the 2006 FIFA World Cup. In the end Germany won the secret ballot with 12 to 11 votes over South Africa in July 2000.

Despite the claims by Der Spiegel, Wolfgang Niersbach said in a press conference yesterday that there wasn't any wrongdoing involved in the bid. Niersbach explained, that the money from Robert Louis Dreyfus, was loaned and used as an upfront payment to the FIFA to secure "additional organisation subsidies", in the amount of 170 million Euros, in return. He underlined: "There was no slush fund nor did we bought votes."

However, Theo Zwanziger disagrees on Niersbach's representation on the state of facts. Zwanziger was from 2006 until 2012 president of the DFB and told Der Spiegel in an interview that "It is certain that the current DFB president knew about this and not only a few weeks, as he claims. The way I see it Niersbach is lying."

The final words have not yet been spoken as the FIFA confirmed this week that they will start an investigation relating to the bribery allegations. In addition the FIFA contradict Niersbach's version of an upfront payment. Endit