German football great, Franz Beckenbauer, is behind an agreement drawn up with disgraced former FIFA executive committee member, Jack Warner, before the World Cup vote in 2000 won by Germany, the Bild daily reported online on Tuesday.
According to Bild, the document was “possibly a bribery attempt” and signed by Beckenbauer as head of Germany’s 2006 World Cup bid committee and later president of the World Cup organising committee.
Bild columnist, Alfred Draxler, wrote “my long-standing friend Franz Beckenbauer” signed the draft document, which was initialed by Beckenbauer confidante, Fedor Radmann, later a vice president of the organising committee.
It was not clear whether the deal ever came about.
Beckenbauer’s management did not wish to make an immediate comment on the report.
In its print edition on Tuesday, Bild said information about the document led to the resignation on Monday of German football federation President, Wolfgang Niersbach, who was reportedly unaware of its existence.
Bild cited the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily, which first reported on the draft agreement with Warner, without mentioning Beckenbauer as its signatory.
According to Bild, the proposed deal with Warner was dated four days before the FIFA executive voted on July 6, 2000 on the 2006 World Cup hosts.
Germany edged South Africa by 12-11 in the vote.
Warner, former president of the Central American and Caribbean Confederation and a former FIFA vice president, has been banned for life by football’s world governing body.
He is one of 14 people indicted in the US on racketeering and corruption charges.
In German media reaction to Niersbach’s resignation, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said in a commentary that it “is only the first step” and that legal action should follow.
A number of questions remained, including the role Beckenbauer and other members of the organising committee played in the affair.
It wrote: “The decisive question is: where did the money go which the Germans say was to finance a World Cup opening gala which never took place?”
Spiegel magazine, which first reported that the German federation could have had a slush fund to buy World Cup votes, said Niersbach’s resignation presented the DFB with a “difficult task” in finding a long-term successor.
Former Germany international and current national team general manager, Oliver Bierhoff, is a possible candidate, it said.
The two current interim presidents, German Football League President Rainhard Rauball and Rainer Koch, as well as federation treasurer, Reinhard Grindel, are also possible candidates, it reported.
The DFB had said on Monday that it was no longer considering taking legal action against Spiegel over its reports.
It meanwhile urged Beckenbauer to give more details on his knowledge of payments made while he was in charge of the 2006 World Cup organising committee.
Interim co-president Koch told the German broadcaster ZDF late on Monday that it was “high time” Beckenbauer made a statement.
“Our request is that he gets more intensively involved in clearing up the affair,” Koch said.
dpa/NAN.
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