Grindel vows to restore trust in the German FA
THE man poised to take over the running of German football has pledged to clean up his corruption-tainted federation as Franz Beckenbauer became the subject of a FIFA inquiry into the 2006 World Cup.
Last week, FIFA’s ethics committee announced they were investigating Beckenbauer and five other senior German officials over their roles in a possible vote-buying scandal.
Reinhard Grindel, treasurer of the German football association (DFB) and the only candidate to become their president, last night refused to admit bribes were paid but vowed to restore German football’s battered reputation.
‘We have to be fair and wait for the outcome of the ethics inquiry,’ he told The Mail on Sunday. ‘Franz Beckenbauer is right when he says mistakes were made.
‘We will be the first federation to set up its own ethics committee to make sure nothing like this crisis happens again and we have total transparency.
‘The only thing I can do is look forward and rebuild trust.’ A Mail on Sunday investigation last year uncovered evidence suggesting Beckenbauer was complicit in influencing votes of FIFA’s committee for the 2006 World Cup.
Friendly matches were arranged in nations which had a vote on who would host the tournament.
Germany ended up winning the ballot by a single vote over South Africa, with England also in the running to host the tournament.
Beckenbauer was head of his country’s organising committee.
The gravity of the decision to open ‘formal proceedings’ against Beckenbauer and other members of his World Cup bidding team, including former German football association (DFB) president Wolfgang Niersbach, should not be underestimated.
Niersbach is still a serving member of FIFA’s executive committee, earning about £240,000 a year plus expenses — remarkable given he resigned from the DFB over the 2006 allegations and is under formal FIFA investigation.
Beckenbauer has denied any involvement in 2006 vote-buying, but said: ‘In hindsight I may have made mistakes.’