Germany paid Fifa members ‘bribes’ for 2006 World Cup

[Guardiola]

Report: Germany paid Fifa members ‘bribes’ for 2006 World Cup

10.3 million Swiss francs paid to FIFA in 2006 under a cloud as its use has been queried.

PUBLISHED : Friday, 16 October, 2015, 3:49pm
UPDATED : Friday, 16 October, 2015, 11:05pm

Associated Press

Fifa president Sepp Blatter (centre) with Fifa executives during the presentation of the 2006 Fifa World Cup bid of Germany in Zurich, Switzerland. Photo: AP

Der Spiegel is reporting that Germany’s bid to host the World Cup in 2006 was aided by bribes paid to Fifa executive committee members.

The German news weekly said on its website that “the awarding of the 2006 World Cup to Germany was allegedly bought” with a slush fund set up by the German bid committee of 10.3 million Swiss francs (HK$84 million) contributed by former Adidas chief Robert Louis-Dreyfus.

Spiegel said Louis-Dreyfus loaned the money as a private citizen to the bid committee before the awarding of the tournament on July 6, 2000. It was reportedly used to secure the votes of four Asian representatives on Fifa’s 24-member executive committee.

Earlier on Friday, the German football federation said it was investigating whether a multimillion-euro payment it made to Fifa was misused