• German
handed 90-day suspension from all football activities
• Refused
to be questioned by ethics commission
The Guardian, David Conn and Philip Oltermann, Friday 13 June 2014
 |
| Franz Beckenbauer has been banned by Fifa for twice refusing to take part in its ethics commission inquiry into Qatar. Photograph: Lynne Cameron/PA |
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. On Friday 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 from football activities for life following
corruption allegations.
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.
“A breach
of the code of ethics appears to have been committed,” Fifa said in a
statement. “The apparent breach relates to Mr Beckenbauer’s failure to
co-operate with an ethics committee investigation despite repeated requests for
his assistance, including that he provide information during an in-person
interview or in response to written questions provided in both English and
German.”
Fifa said
the formal investigation is being led by another member of the ethics
committee, Vanessa Allard of Trinidad & Tobago.
Beckenbauer,
who played 103 times for Germany and won the World Cup as captain in 1974, then
as the Germany coach in 1990, has for years become involved in a plethora of
business interests, often set up by his adviser, Fedor Radmann.
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 and had asked for a meeting to talk about it in German. After the ban
was announced Beckenbauer said that his nominal position at Bayern Munich was
his only remaining official football role, although Beckenbauer is also a
special advisor to Fifa’s football committee. “If they mean my honorary
presidency at FCB, then I can live with it,” he said.
 |
FIFA ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia delivers a speech
during the 64th FIFA congress on June 11, 2014 in
Sao Paulo (AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini)
|
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