FIFA closes the case against Beckenbauer by prescription of the facts

The The Independent Ethics Committee of FIFA has closed the case against the Germans Franz Beckenbauer, Theo Zwanziger and Horst Schmidt for alleged financial irregularities in the concession to Germany of the organization of the 2006 World Cup.

The procedure started in March 2016, when FIFA concluded that Beckenbauer, head of the 2006 World Cup, and the former leaders of the German federation (DFB) Zwanziger and Schmidt had violated anti-corruption regulations due to a payment of 10 million Swiss francs (about 9 million euros) made by the organizing committee to Mohamed bin Hammam in 2002.

“This payment was linked to the approval of a financial contribution of 250 million Swiss francs allocated and paid by FIFA to the organizing committee of the World Cup in Germany between 2002 and 2006”, FIFA recalled this Thursday in its resolution.

Investigators believe that the money was a hidden return via FIFA to then Adidas CEO Robert Louis-Dreyfus. In 2002, a similar sum was transferred from an account of the president of the organizing committee, Beckenbauer himself, and his then manager to an account in Qatar of one of Mohamed Bin Hammam's companies, suspended for life by FIFA for corruption charges. What happened to that money is still unknown.

When calculating the statute of limitations relating to this case, The Ethics Committee has ruled that the beginning of this period should not begin to run in 2006, when the World Cup was held, but years before, specifically at the “precise moment of the conduct of each person involved.”

“Consequently, the court ruled that the corresponding limitation period expired in 2012 in the case of Mr. Beckenbauer and in 2015 in the cases of Mr. Zwanziger and Mr. Schmidt, which implies that their conduct can no longer be pursued in accordance with article 12 of the FIFA Code of Ethics “, argued the body.