PHILIP OLTERMANN Franz Beckenbauer has been banned by Fifa from taking part in any football-related activity for 90 days. The governing body alleges that he has failed to co-operate with the ongoing inquiry by Michael Garcia into Fifa’s vote to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.
Fifa said the ban on the German football legend is provisional, pending the completion of a formal investigation into his alleged non-co-operation. Last night Beckenbauer reacted with surprise to the news, telling Sky Sport Germany: “I had to check the date at first. I thought it was April the first and thus an April fool.”
Beckenbauer was one of the 22 members of the Fifa executive committee who in 2010 cast their secret votes for World Cup hosts, and he has never declared for which countries he voted. Last weekend, based on a cache of documents in its possession, the Sunday Times alleged that Beckenbauer visited Qatar before and after the vote, at the invitation of Mohamed Bin Hammam, the Qatari exco member who has since been banned by Fifa for life following corruption allegations.
Visited Qatar
The
Sunday Times
reported that in June 2011, Beckenbauer visited Qatar as part of a business delegation for the Hamburg shipping company ER Capital Holding, for which Beckenbauer was an adviser and ambassador. He has since 2012 also been an ambassador for the Association of Russian Gas Producers.
Fifa said that Garcia, the chairman of the investigatory chamber of the ethics committee, has been seeking to interview Beckenbauer but received no co-operation, to the point where Garcia requested disciplinary action in the form of the ban. It said the formal investigation is being led by another member of the ethics committee, Vanessa Allard of Trinidad & Tobago.
FIFA said in a statement: “Franz Beckenbauer was today provisionally banned from taking part in any football-related activity, at any level, for 90 days. The apparent breach relates to Mr Beckenbauer’s failure to cooperate with an ethics committee investigation despite repeated requests for his assistance, including requests that he provide information during an in-person interview or in response to written questions provided in both English and German.”
Beckenbauer told the German media this week that he did not respond to Garcia’s request for an interview because he did not understand all the questions sent to him in English. Beckenbauer insisted he had nothing to hide.
“I politely requested a meeting in which we could talk about the matter in German. That was apparently not desired. That aside I wouldn’t be able to contribute anything to clear up the matter anyway,” he said. Guardian Service
