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Franz Beckenbauer issues statement on bribery allegations

Xinhua, October 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

Franz Beckenbauer reject claims of bribery related to the 2006 World Cup hosting bid, the German football legend announced in an official statement on Monday.

The head of Germany's organizing committee for the 2006 FIFA World Cup denies that money from a slush fund had been utilized, back in 2000, to buy votes for the hosting rights in Germany. "No votes were bought to secure the World Cup in 2006 in Germany," Beckenbauer said.

However, the German football legend admitted an error by saying that: "In order to obtain financial subsidies from the FIFA, we agreed on a proposal with the FIFA Finance Committee. From today's perspective we should have rejected that proposal. For this mistake at that time, I bear the responsibility as the president of the organizing committee."

Der Spiegel revealed weeks 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.

In addition to the Spiegel claims, former German Football Association (DFB) president Theo Zwanziger declared that there was a slush fund at that time. "It is obvious that there was a slush fund involved in the German World Cup bid."

Beckenbauer added that he wouldn't make reference on comments by other parties, "in order not to affect other interviews." Endit