Beckenbauer added to FIFA investigation list

FIFA lifted a new corner of its veil of secrecy Wednesday by revealing that German football great Franz Beckenbauer and world body vice president Maria Villar Llona have been investigated.

It said inquiries against the two are in the hands of the FIFA ethics committee's court for a decision.

The two were on a list of 11 names -- also including suspended FIFA leader Sepp Blatter and UEFA president Michel Platini -- that the ethics committee said have been or are the target of inquiries.

Football anti-corruption investigators had been prevented from saying who was on their probe list until FIFA's executive committee eased restrictions on Tuesday.   

The ethics watchdog did not say why Beckenbauer and Villar Llona had been investigated.

But both were on the FIFA executive committee when Russia and Qatar were awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in controversial votes in 2010.

Beckenbauer, 70, was briefly suspended by FIFA last year for refusing to cooperate with a corruption inquiry into World Cup votes by former US federal prosecutor Michael Garcia.

One of only two people to have won the World Cup as a player and coach, Beckenbauer led Germany's successful bid for the 2006 World Cup. This week he denied a report that a 6.7 million euro fund was used to buy votes.

Villar Llona has been head of the Spanish football federation for 27 years and a FIFA executive member since 1998. He is also currently the most senior official in the European body UEFA after the 90-day suspension of its president Platini.

Moderate' inquiries

He was named as an investigation target barely a day after becoming head of FIFA's liaison committee for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, in place of Platini.

Following the FIFA executive decision to ease restrictions on the ethics committee, the watchdog confirmed for the first time that Blatter and Platini face formal proceedings.

"The investigatory chamber will do everything in its power to ensure that a decision" on Blatter and Platini can be made before the end of their current 90 day suspensions.

Both have been banned over a two million Swiss franc ($2 million/1.8 million euros) payment made by FIFA to Platini in 2011.

The suspension threatens to derail the Frenchman's bid to take over from Blatter when an election is held on February 26.

Domenico Scala, chairman of FIFA's electoral and audit committees, told the Financial Times that the failure to disclose the payment to Platini could be seen as a "falsification of accounts".

The committee also confirmed that suspended FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke is being probed under "suspicion of misuse of expenses and other infringements of FIFA’s rules and regulations."

Among other names revealed for the first time are former Brazilian football federation chief Ricardo Teixeira, and tainted Nigerian official Amos Adamu.

Adamu was banned for three years in 2010 for breaching bribery rules over the 2018 and 2022 World Cup votes.

Also on the list was Thai football baron Worawi Makudi, who was suspended for 90 days last week.

Jeffrey Webb, Eugenio Figueredo and Nicolas Leoz were among seven FIFA officials detained in Zurich in May as part of a US investigation into more than $150 million of bribes for soccer deals.

US authorities have named 14 people over the case and said that more charges are likely.

The ethics committee said it was "carrying out a moderate number of preliminary investigations against a number of football officials." These could be named later if there is "concrete suspicion of wrongdoing."

The committee acted as football gets to grips with a new potential scandal -- this time over the attribution of the 2006 World Cup to Germany.

Der Spiegel magazine said this week the German federation borrowed 10.3 million Swiss francs in 2000 from the late head of sportswear giant Adidas, Robert Louis-Dreyfus, in order to buy the votes of four Asian members of FIFA executive committee.

The German magazine claimed the federation transferred 6.7 million euros to a FIFA account in 2005 to reimburse Louis-Dreyfus.

Beckenbauer strongly denied any money was paid for World Cup votes.

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AFP