At 10.44 a.m., Wolfgang Niersbach enters room 9 of the Frankfurt Regional Court. The former President of the German Football Association (DFB) knows the locations well. Until late summer 2024, he was sitting here in the tax process about the million -dollar globes around the 2006 World Cup. Then the proceedings against him were terminated against payment of a money. For this he should now testify as a witness in the process. This is quite a explosive moment: Because Niersbach, 74, is the first from the closest circle of the then World Cup makers, who now says extensively in court.
In fact, the process has reached a new escalation level before its first sentence. And that has nothing to do with those responsible for Niersbach and the now deceased World Cup boss Franz Beckenbauer. Rather, it is about the procedure of today’s DFB leadership. On Thursday, the court represents the accusation in the room that the DFB recently tried to influence the process in an unfair manner.
:DFB: 24 million euro lawsuit against ex-president
It is a one-time process in the 125-year history of the DFB: the association is in court against its former President Theo Zwanziger-due to financial damage that was created in the course of the 2006 World Cup.
The reason for these complaints is the content and circumstances of a previously unknown DFB letter to the Frankfurt Attorney General from November 2024, which judge Eva-Marie Distler reads on Thursday. In it, the association, in the person of its treasurer Stephan Grunwald, asks for an appointment. The background is the “far -reaching restrictions” and “persistent stress”, from which the DFB suffered in the course of the ongoing tax procedures. Because they not only led to charges against (ex-) officials, but also to financial consequences for the association.
The letter had arisen from a conversation with the Ministry of Finance, according to the DFB
Due to the tax treatment of the transactions around the 2006 World Cup and due to allegedly not correctly not correct, gang advertising in 2014 and 2015, the association has been revoked for three years. That cost him a total of around 50 million euros. For this reason, according to the DFB in the letter, he could not fulfill its statutory tasks in youth sports as desired. Against this background and whether the long period of proceedings, there was already a conversation with a high ministerial official from the Hessian Ministry of Finance and representatives of the financial administration; From this, the idea is growing up to contact the Attorney General and to ask for a joint discussion. The aim is that there is a “acceleration of procedures” and, if possible, a “partial settlement”.
This process does not only contradict the impression that the DFB last revealed what its financial situation is increasingly relaxing. He also angered the Frankfurt Regional Court. To contact the General Prosecutor in this form during an ongoing procedure, i.e. to the supervisor of the responsible criminal investigators, that she was “amazed”, and it was “very unusual in the German constitutional state,” said judge Distler. One could describe it as a “attempted influence” on the local process.
In terms of content, the Attorney General then ironed off the desire. According to the previous state of knowledge, Distler cited from the general prosecutor’s response to the association, the DFB has so far stated that he was not accused of misconduct in the WM-2006-Causa. “As far as this position continues, I see little space for discussions for a consensual solution,” wrote the official representative. He also referred to the far advanced stage of the procedure.
Wolfgang Niersbach tells little illuminating one of the big questions – he has a gag ready for this
In his replica in court, DFB lawyer Jan Olaf Leisner said that it was not a matter of influencing the specific tax procedure, but only about the question of how the noticeable charity looks. He also pointed out that the initiative had assumed the intended discussion from the official of the Ministry of Finance; The Ministry initially did not answer an SZ request on Thursday. Judge Distler returned Leisner that nobody had to be in here anyway.
The controversial letter is now the second big topic within a short time that the current DFB tip has bound to the leg around the process. It was only this week that the association submitted a lawsuit against its former President Theo Zwanziger. The 79-year-old is the last remaining defendant in the World Cup 2006 process-he strictly denies the allegation of tax evasion-and the DFB wanted to secure the right to compensation with this step. He estimated the value in dispute at 24 million euros, especially because of the dismissal of the charitable status. The lawsuit is also strange because the DFB basically believes in the tax procedure – like the twenties – that there is no tax evasion. DFB lawyer Leisner stated on Thursday that it was simply the association’s duty to secure any claims and have no contradiction. Whereupon the judge opposed him that he had contradicted himself.
And Wolfgang Niersbach, the original main actor of the day? He contributed some remarkable details in the more than three -hour survey. So he reported how Franz Beckenbauer, as head of the World Cup, had thought about liability issues at an early stage. But when it came to the big questions and his own participation, Niersbach’s appearance was in place like a reissue of his legendary press conference from autumn 2015, which he gave as a DFB boss shortly after the outbreak of the World Cup 2006 affair.
Regardless of whether it was about the loan of the former Adidas boss Robert Louis-Dreyfus for Beckenbauer from 2002 who triggered the World Cup affair; or the repayment of this loan three years later by transfer of 6.7 million euros; Or about his actions in 2015 when the disreputable process flew up; Or about deleted emails and documents or conversations with the World Cup colleagues at that time. Quite often, Niersbach could no longer remember, or he presented explanations that recognized the court and the public prosecutor’s office as little credible.
Niersbach left a good gag. He didn’t need a break yet, he said in between that he still had enough water. He “only brought with him because the Uli Hoeneß had nothing to drink,” he said in memory of the questioning of the FC Bavaria patrone a year ago.
The process has been going on that long, an end is planned for June. However, the current DFB leadership is likely to employ the topic for a long time.