The German Football Federation was convicted of fiscal dropout on Wednesday in the judicial case that began with a suspicion of corruption in the country’s choice to host the 2006 World Cup. In practice, the suspicion of voting purchase became a case of tax evasion, generating a fine to the German entity.
Wednesday’s decision ended a lawsuit that lasted about 10 years motivated by allegations that Germany used a secret fund to buy votes from then -FIFA executive committee to ensure the tournament in the European country.
A Frankfurt Regional Court fined the Federation, known for the German acronym DFB, in 110,000 euros, about $ 702,000 at the end of a trial of almost 16 months, after the investigation process ended. Prosecutors pressured a larger fine after accusing DFB not to pay approximately 2.7 million euros in taxes related to the payment of 6.7 million euros to FIFA in April 2005.
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This payment settled a loan that German Franz Beckenbauer, head of the World Cup Organizing Committee, had contracted three years earlier with Robert Louis-Dreyfus, former Adidas executive and then co-owner of the Infront marketing agency.
The money was channeled through a Swiss law firm to a Qatar company belonging to Mohammed Bin Hammam, then a member of the FIFA Executive Committee. The exact goal of money has never been determined.
Theo Zwanziger, who was president of DFB at the time, told the magazine Spiegel In 2015 that “there was certainly a secret fund in the German candidacy to the World Cup.” He accused his successor, Wolfgang Niersbach, to lie on the subject. Both were part of the 2006 World Cup organizing committee.
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The DFB has hidden the reimbursement of the loan as a contribution to an opening party of the World Cup that did not happen. And would have falsely declared the expense as commercial expense a year later.
Zwanziger, Niersbach and DFB Secretary-General Horst R. Schmidt were initially accused at the trial. The lawsuit against the three, who denied the accusations of tax evasion, was eventually filed after the payment of fines.
“The court is certainly right that DFB has evaded taxes and those involved tolerated it,” Judge Eva-Marie Distler said on Wednesday in comments released by the DPA news agency. The DFB was initially fined 130,000 euros, but 20,000 euros were dismissed due to “procedural delays” in the case. DFB has a week to appeal the decision.
