Allegations that Germany bribed its way to secure the right to host the 2006 World Cup not only shook the football world, but also shone a spotlight on cosy ties between sportswear giant Adidas and FIFA.
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At the heart of the latest graft claims to rock world football is a 10.3 million Swiss francs payment made in 2000 by Adidas’s former boss Robert Louis-Dreyfus to the German Football Federation (DFB).
News weekly Der Spiegel claimed in a report late last week that DFB borrowed the sum in order to buy the votes of four Asian members of FIFA’s 24-strong executive committee. The magazine claimed the DFB subsequently transferred 6.7 million euros — the equivalent of the borrowed Swiss francs at the time — to a FIFA account in 2005 to repay Louis-Dreyfus.
The DFB has denied the claims, while Adidas has sought to distance itself from the case.
“We are not aware of such a payment by Robert Louis-Dreyfus,” said the brand with the three-stripes logo. “We can rule out that it was a business operation of Adidas AG.”
Germany accused of ‘buying 2006 Fifa World Cup’ in explosive report, writes @tompeck http://t.co/O3Yh3OkxXz pic.twitter.com/C0ejqCEJ6w
— Indy Football (@IndyFootball) October 16, 2015
Investment bank Berenberg’s analyst Zuzanna Pusz warned that the German magazine’s claims “could have some kind of impact on their reputation”. No legal consequences have arisen from the case so far, as German prosecutors said Monday they were still examining whether there were grounds to launch a probe.
The wealth of French businessman Louis-Dreyfus, who died in 2009, has been dogged by controversy. In 2001, he transferred millions to the former president of Bayern Munich, Uli Hoeness. The recipient has claimed it was a private gift for him to gamble on the stock market.
Switzerland’s probe into the awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar was already awkward for Adidas, the main sponsor of the games since 1970. But with the World Cup hosted in Germany also being called into question by the Spiegel report, that is just getting too close to home for Adidas.
The German brand has a contract worth 30 million euros a year with FIFA that runs until 2030.
In 2012, FIFA began investigating illegal payments made by ISL and concluded that the company had paid bribes to FIFA top officials including former FIFA president Joao Havelange.
“There is an archaic system (at FIFA) with these archaic people. Television brought money and taught these people to love money,” said European football boss Michel Platini, who himself has also been suspended over corruption claims.
