The gatekeepers will have to prepare for a rush of visitors to hearing room 1 of the Frankfurt Regional Court (LG) on April 15th. A prominent witness has been summoned to the fourth day of the Summer Fairy Tale trial: Uli Hoeneß, honorary president of FC Bayern and intimate partner of Franz Beckenbauer (†78), who died last January.
Hoeneß is supposed to shed light on what happened to the ten million Swiss francs (6.7 million euros) that Beckenbauer borrowed from former Adidas boss Robert Louis-Dreyfus (deceased in 2009) in 2002 as head of the World Cup organizing committee. And they ended up in Qatar via a Swiss law firm at a company owned by ex-FIFA Vice President Mohamed Bin Hammam, who has now been banned for life for corruption. In 2005, the DFB repaid the loan to Louis-Dreyfus via the world association Fifa.
The reason for Hoeneß’ summons is his public suggestion that he knows details about the dubious million-dollar payment: “I know very definitely that the money was not used to buy votes.”
Uli Hoeneß has to appear in court in mid-April
Source: Getty Images/Alexander Hassenstein
However, evidence gives a different impression. A trail leads to Zurich – to the former FIFA boss Sepp Blatter. A former DFB official who was in a responsible position when the 2006 home World Cup that was allegedly bought in 2015 made headlines confirms to WELT: The 6.7 million euros were most likely used to finance Blatter’s 2002 election campaign, not the 2006 summer fairy tale.
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His suspicions are based on a conversation he had with the former DFB general secretary and treasurer Horst R. Schmidt about the whereabouts of the millions. Like the two former DFB presidents Wolfgang Niersbach and Theo Zwanziger, Schmidt has to answer before the regional court for serious tax evasion. In the DFB tax return for 2006, the 6.7 million euros were declared as World Cup business expenses – wrongly, as the public prosecutor believes.
Withdrawn for private conversation
The former DFB official, who wishes to remain anonymous, remembers that Schmidt told him about his visit with Beckenbauer to Blatter in Zurich in January 2002. The Swiss was pilloried because of the bribery scandal involving Fifa’s marketing agency ISL. Secretary General Michel Zen-Ruffinen filed a criminal complaint against Blatter for embezzlement and abuse of office. Blatter, now 88 years old, no longer had access to FIFA funds to distribute to over 200 associations during the election campaign.
At some point, according to Schmidt, Blatter and Beckenbauer withdrew for a one-on-one conversation. After their return, Beckenbauer is said to have explained to Schmidt that a solution had been found: Blatter had demanded a “commission” in connection with a FIFA World Cup grant to the DFB amounting to 250 million Swiss francs. And explains: “You have to discuss this with Bin Hammam.” The Qatari was responsible for the Fifa Finance Commission on behalf of the ill Argentine Julio Grondona (died in 2014).
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A version that coincides with a note that Stefan Hans, head of the DFB presidential office, made after questioning Schmidt on October 15, 2015. Blatter then expected “consideration” for the 250 million: “10 million CHF from RLD (Louis-Dreyfus, the editorial team) to third parties (HRS not known) could have been Bin Hammam – for Blatter”. Beckenbauer’s aide Fedor Radmann may have played a key role in clarifying the payment details with Bin Hammam. He has not yet been called as a witness.
The latest development: Three weeks ago, the Frankfurt Regional Court ordered a search of the new DFB headquarters. The record of another interrogation of Schmidt by the company Esecon commissioned by the association on February 10, 2021 was sought. The then DFB President Fritz Keller was there at times and, like Hoeneß, is to be summoned as a witness.
Money used to buy votes?
According to the Esecon minutes, “it must be assumed that the money was used to buy votes”. It is unclear whether this means votes for Blatter’s election campaign or the 2006 home World Cup. Schmidt did not authorize the protocol.
Nevertheless, it fits into a long chain of evidence: After Blatter’s re-election on May 28, 2002 in Seoul, Beckenbauer is said to have whispered to Niersbach at the FIFA Congress: “He was also elected with my money.” Hans reported this in the Freshfields report in 2016.
The DFB had involved the company in the summer fairy tale affair. According to Hans, it was Niersbach’s understanding “that Bin Hammam received the money provided by Louis-Dreyfus in 2002 to finance Blatter’s election campaign in 2002.” Niersbach explained this at two DFB meetings on October 14th and 15th, 2015.
Wolfgang Niersbach was recently in the courtroom because the public prosecutor’s office accused three ex-DFB officials of tax evasion
Source: dpa/Arne Dedert
Niersbach also confirmed to Freshfields that Beckenbauer had asked him at the FIFA Congress in 2002 whether Niersbach knew who Blatter owed his re-election to. When Niersbach said no, Beckenbauer pointed to himself. In a second interview, Niersbach also said that Beckenbauer had told him that Blatter had also been elected thanks to him. Beckenbauer himself described the claim that Blatter was elected with his money as the biggest nonsense he had ever heard.
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But what is striking is that the first tranche of the ten million Swiss francs – 1.95 million – was paid out on May 29, 2002, immediately after Blatter’s re-election. In the end, Freshfields came to the conclusion that there was no hard and fast evidence that the 6.7 million euros were used to finance the Blatter election campaign. Nevertheless, the LG Frankfurt is also following this lead.
Whether Uli Hoeneß can – and wants to – uncover the secret?
The text was researched for the Sports Competence Center (WELT, SPORT BILD, BILD) and first published in SPORT BILD.