FIFA investigating whether Germany bribed its way to 2006 World Cup bid

The corruption scandal sweeping world soccer engulfed Germany as FIFA said Friday that it would investigate “very serious allegations” that voters were bribed to win Germany the 2006 World Cup bid.

The latest claims of wrongdoing linked to soccer’s governing body broke as suspended President Sepp Blatter went public with his fight to get his FIFA ethics case thrown out.

Blatter may have deepened the prospect of a long ban by admitting there was only a “gentleman’s agreement” for the 2011 payment he authorized to UEFA President Michel Platini that led to their both being suspended by FIFA last week after it emerged through a criminal investigation.

FIFA is attempting to contain the damage to the image of the world’s most popular sport by ramping up the scale of inquiries into alleged illegality. After 14 soccer officials were indicted in May by U.S. authorities in a soccer bribery case, FIFA launched an internal investigation in an attempt to show it is committed to eradicating corruption.

The investigation will now include looking into a report in news magazine Der Spiegel that Germany’s 2006 World Cup bid committee established a slush fund of 10.3 million Swiss francs (then about $6 million) to bribe four of the 24 voters.

Franz Beckenbauer, the former Germany great who headed the bidding committee, and Wolfgang Niersbach, the current president of the German football federation (DFB), as well as other high-ranking football officials were aware of the slush fund by 2005 at the latest, the report claimed.

Former Adidas chief Robert Louis-Dreyfus, who died in 2009, provided the funding, according to Spiegel, and asked for the money — by then worth 6.7 million euros — back before the tournament began.

Spiegel reported that a cover was created with the help of FIFA and that 6.7 million euros were transferred to FIFA as a contribution to an opening ceremony gala that was later canceled.

“These are very serious allegations,” FIFA said in a statement. “They will be reviewed as part of the independent internal investigation currently being conducted by FIFA under the direction of its legal director with the assistance of outside counsel.”

No criminal authority has said it is investigating the latest allegations, but FIFA’s statement stressed that it “continues to cooperate with the investigations of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Office of the Swiss Attorney General.”

The German football federation insisted the report was “completely baseless” and said neither Niersbach nor the other members of the organizing committee “were involved or could have known about such operations.”