Just when you think things cannot get much worse in the world of FIFA and international soccer, it turns out they can. The New York Times reported that FIFA has opened an ethics investigation into German officials who were involved with the country’s bid to host the 2006 World Cup. The people under investigation include “two former presidents of the German soccer federation, Wolfgang Niersbach and Theo Zwanziger, and Mr. Beckenbauer. Mr. Niersbach is a member of FIFA’s ruling executive committee, and Mr. Zwanziger and Mr. Beckenbauer are former members of that body,” according to the Times.
The FIFA investigation comes on the heels of the release of a report by a U.K. law firm in suspicious payments “linked to Germany’s successful bid. The report said it found no indication that votes were bought, but it did not rule out the possibility of corruption because it could not establish who ultimately received the money.” The payment in question was approximately $10.9 million and mislabeled as payment for a FIFA gala. It was made by the German soccer federation to the President of Adidas, through a FIFA account from there went to Switzerland and Qatar where the trail ran cold.
