Frankfurt’s Public Prosecutor (Staatsanwaltschaft Frankfurt am Main) has filed charges against former Presidents of the German football association (DFB), Theo Zwanzinger and Wolfgang Niersbach, its former General Secretary Horst R. Schmidt, and former FIFA General Secretary Urs Linsi, reports Bild. The charges are understood to relate to a €6.7 million payment, which a report commissioned by the DFB found was falsely declared as intended for a gala event connected to the FIFA 2006 World Cup Opening Ceremony by the German local organising committee in 2005.

The report explained its actual intention was to repay a 2002 loan from Robert Louis-Dreyfus, who was then CEO of Adidas. The German sportswear manufacturer was a FIFA Partner for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. It is understood that the gala event the payment was intended to finance never took place.

Once the €6.7 million was paid by the DFB to FIFA, it was transferred to Louis-Dreyfus’ Swiss bank account the same day, the report found. It also explained that part of the payment was diverted through an account in Qatar connected to Mohammed bin Hammam, Kemco Scaffolding Co. He denied receiving the payments at the time, but later admitted that the money was deposited in his account.

The report also found that payments were made between Dreyfus’ Swiss bank account and that of Franz Beckenbauer, who was head of the World Cup organising committee at that time. As such, whether the payment was used to help secure a larger FIFA funding grant for the World Cup organising committee, or whether there was a further ‘underlying purpose’ should ‘remain open’, read the report. Hammam was banned by FIFA for life in 2012 for paying national associations in connection to his 2011 FIFA Presidential election campaign and in connection to the 2010 voting process to appoint the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.