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The Swiss Attorney General's Office closed a criminal investigation opened in 2015 on the organization of the 2006 Football World Cup in Germany. The accusations of fraud against the former president of the German Football Federation (DFB), Theo Zevatsiger, and the former FIFA Secretary General, Urs Linzi.
He also maintained the same charge against Horst Rudolf Schmidt, former secretary general of the German Confederation, while Wolfgang Niersbach, member and vice-chairman of the organizing committee of the 2006 World Cup, was accused of "complicity in fraud", announced Tuesday the Federal Ministry of Public Affairs, the indictment. In big problems.
In November 2015, the prosecutor opened a criminal investigation against the legend Franz Beckenbauer as chairman of the nomination committee for the World Cup, Horst Rudolf Schmidt, Zwanziger and his successor to the presidency of the German federation Niersbach, who had to resign before FIFA decides to suspend it.
In November 2016, Swiss justice announced searches related to former FIFA Secretary General Urs Linzi.
The investigation concerns a "payment of 6.7 million euros made in April 2005 by the German Football Association to Robert Louis Dreyfus", former president of Adidas sports equipment, partner of the badociation.
"All this campaign in Switzerland is pathetic and will fail completely because nothing can condemn me," Zwanziger told the German CID news agency.
He spoke of a "judicial scandal", accusing the investigators of "incompetence".
The main investigation concerned a secret fund of 10 million Swiss francs (6.7 million euros at the time of the exchange) unveiled in 2015 by the German weekly Der Spiegel, which aimed to buy the voice of Asia to vote for the World Cup.
The fund was created at the request of Beckenbauer, who chaired the German file promotion committee, and was funded by the late Robert Louis-Dreyfus, just before the summer of 2000, when Germany got the the 2006 edition.
The money was supposed to be used to organize a World Cup night, but it was not the case.
Beckenbauer is currently exempted because of his state of health
In his decision on Tuesday, the Swiss prosecutor announced that he had decided last month to exempt Beckenbauer from any pending proceedings and that his case would be prosecuted separately due to his state of health.
"The collective verdict will unnecessarily delay the prosecution of the other defendants, because the state of health of Franz Beckenbauer, according to the current diagnoses, does not allow him to participate nor to be heard at the main hearing before the Federal Criminal Court, "said the Swiss Ministry.
Der Spiegel recently reported that Beckenbauer's health "has deteriorated dramatically since April," citing his decreasing ability to discriminate and have memory problems.
According to the magazine, the doctors of the 1974 World Cup captain and German coach, who also peaked in 1990, said any pressure, such as his hearing in court, "could put his life in danger".
At the end of last year, the German judiciary has put an end to the lawsuits against Zwanziger, Niersbach and Schmidt, accused in May 2018 of a "tax evasion" in the same case as the vote of the Cup of the world 2006.
The Frankfurt prosecutor suspected the defendants of having produced a false tax return for 2006. The tax office in Frankfurt had found that the German Football Association had not reported in any way Adequate 6.7 million euros, imposing a fine of 19.2 million euros.
But the DFB protested against this decision, while Zwanziger maintained his position that the DFB administration did not act badly. The German Federation and FIFA, as well as 2009 Frankfurt tax office. "
The investigation into allegations of purchase of votes ordered by the DFB in March 2016 confirmed that it had borrowed money from Louis-Dreyfus, without however deciding on its use. Five months after the opening of the investigation, the lawsuits were suspended for lack of evidence, but the prosecution appealed.
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