体坛英语新闻： German Football Association investigate FIFA payments

BERLIN, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- The German Football Association (DFB) started an internal investigation after Der Spiegel unveiled malpractice in a report during the 2006 World Cup bid on Friday.

The DFB, governing body of the football in Germany, is investigating weather 6.7 million euros bribes were paid to the FIFA Executive Committee to secure votes for the 2006 FIFA World Cup hosting bid. Germany won the bid in the end with 12 to 11 votes over South Africa.

According to the report by the weekly German news magazine Der Spiegel, Germany secured the World Cup hosting with bribes by the DFB. The report says that former head of Adidas Robert Louis Dreyfus opened and filled a secret Swiss bank account with 6.7 million Euros.

The report also states that German legend Franz Beckenbauer and current DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach, both part of the Germany's World Cup bidding committee, knew about this secret bank account. Der Spiegel claimed that Robert Louis-Dreyfus' funds were used to buy four votes of the 24-men FIFA Executive Committee.

The DFB released a statement immediately after the Spiegel report was unveiled, saying that "due to recurrent media coverage, the German Football Association (DFB) have launched an internal investigation into the awarding of the 2006 FIFA World Cup."

However, according to the DFB "there is no evidence that any of the delegates' votes were won illegally at any stage in the application process."

In the light of the internal investigations the DFB admitted that, "a 6.7 million euro payment, which was paid to the FIFA in April 2005 by the organizational committee of the 2006 World Cup, may not have been used for its intended purpose (the FIFA culture program)."

The final report of the DFB haven't been released yet as investigations are still ongoing. Nevertheless, Franz Beckenbauer and current DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach refused to comment on the report by Der Spiegel.