German great Franz Beckenbauer targeted in FIFA ethics investigation
Franz Beckenbauer is at the center of an investigation focusing on claims that Germany bribed football officials to win the right to host the 2006 World Cup.
As the number of World Cup voters publicly accused of wrongdoing reached 17, German soccer great Franz Beckenbauer and FIFA Vice President Angel Maria Villar are waiting to discover if they will be found guilty of obstructing the investigation into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests.
Five years after the 2018 tournament was awarded to Russia and the Middle East was given its first World Cup in Qatar in 2022, the shock waves from the landmark dual decision by a much-discredited FIFA executive committee still reverberate throughout the soccer world.
Although the Russian and Qatari successes, along with the conduct of rival bids, have been tainted by five years of allegations, FIFA’s ethics judge ruled last year there was not enough evidence to prove that the decisions were corrupt. But the contests remain subject to a criminal investigation in Switzerland, where the attorney general is examining if there was financial wrongdoing, including money laundering.
Both Beckenbauer and Villar — now serving as FIFA’s No. 2 official while President Sepp Blatter is suspended — have been investigated by ethics prosecutors and are awaiting verdicts in their cases.
The two men would face sanctions if found guilty of obstructing then-FIFA prosecutor Michael Garcia’s investigation, ethics committee spokesman Marc Tenbuecken told the Associated Press.
Beckenbauer and Villar have previously been identified by media as targets of the bidding investigation but were only publicly named Wednesday after FIFA’s executive committee agreed to lift strict secrecy rules it imposed on the ethics committee in 2012.
