Charge: tax evasion

A 16-day trial is scheduled to try former top German Football Association officials at the Frankfurt regional court. This is stated in a press release from the department. Former DFB presidents Wolfgang Niersbach and Theo Zwanziger, as well as former general secretary Horst R. Schmidt, are accused of tax evasion. “The regional court will not allow itself to pervert the law, but instead will abide by it,” Zwanziger said confidently.

The trial will begin on March 4 next year. The last day of trial will be July 11. This means that the process continues right up to the home European Championships (from June 14 to July 14).

Resumption at the Higher Regional Court Frankfurt

In May, the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court resumed proceedings against the trio, which had previously been dismissed by a regional court at the end of October 2022. The Higher Regional Court then announced that the district court’s decision to dismiss was overturned and the proceedings must continue.

As things stand now, poor handling of events will result in legal consequences in a German court. Zwanziger, Niersbach and Schmidt have always denied all accusations.

In essence, it was a payment of 6.7 million euros from the DFB through the world association FIFA to the late entrepreneur Robert Louis-Dreyfus. The money was claimed as a contribution to the 2006 FIFA World Cup gala, which never took place. In 2002, Franz Beckenbauer, in his role as head of the World Cup organization, received a loan of the same amount from Louis-Dreyfus, which eventually disappeared into the accounts of former FIFA finance official Mohamed ben Hammam.
© dpa

“This is how the editors workTells you when and what we report, how we handle bugs, and where our content comes from. We adhere to the principles of the Journalism Trust Initiative in reporting.