FIFA ethics investigators have recommended a fine and social work for a former high-ranking German football federation official for failing to report possible corruption around the 2006 World Cup.
Advertisement
FIFA’s ethics committee has recommended former German FA secretary general Helmut Sandrock be fined 50,000 Swiss francs (45,800 euros, Dollars 51,700) following an investigation into the awarding of the 2006 World Cup to Germany, world football’s governing body said Thursday.
The investigations concerning Mr Sandrock as conducted by Dr Cornel Borbély, chairman of the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee, were opened on 22 March 2016 and the final report was passed to the adjudicatory chamber on 1 September 2016.
“The adjudicatory chamber has studied the report of the investigatory chamber carefully and made a decision to institute formal adjudicatory proceedings against Mr Sandrock”, a Federation Internationale de Football Association statement said.
Franz Beckenbauer, the World Cup winning captain and coach who led the Organising Committee for the tournament, is also among those being investigated.
Switzerland’s attorney general’s office said it opened criminal proceedings against Beckenbauer and three other German members of the 2006 World Cup organising committee’s executive board: Horst Rudolf Schmidt, Theo Zwanziger and Wolfgang Niersbach.
Fifty-nine-year-old Sandrock will now be given the opportunity to submit his position and any evidence he may have, and he can also request a hearing.
German news weekly Der Spiegel had claimed the money had been used to set up a slush fund to buy votes in the 2006 World Cup bidding process.
Advertisement
Swiss federal prosecutors are investigating the 2006 World Cup allegations as part of a wider probe of FIFA’s business that has already put former president Sepp Blatter under criminal investigation.
