Valletta – Police have raided the offices of the Malta Football Association in connection with claims that Germany secured the right to host the 2006 World Cup after paying bribes.
Bjorn Vassallo, FA General Secretary, said on Wednesday in Valletta that officers from the police’s Economic Crimes Unit on Monday searched through the association’s archives at Ta’ Qali headquarters for any documents that might shed light on this scandal.
He said the Malta Football Association (MFA) is fully collaborating with the authorities looking into the scandal.
Vassallo said the cooperation was in line with association’s mission to eradicate corruption from football.
He said the development followed a meeting last Friday in which the police had requested him to put all related documentation at its disposal.
Vassallo said the police raid came in the wake of fresh claims made in a British newspaper, that German football legend, Franz Beckenbauer was complicit in influencing the votes of FIFA’s executive committee in 2000 before it allocated football’s most prestigious tournament to Germany at England’s expense.
Bribery allegations also surfaced in the German magazine Der Spiegel, which claimed there was a 6.7-million-euro slush fund specifically intended to buy votes.
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Beckenbauer, who has denied any knowledge of this fund, headed the organising committee that piloted his country’s bid for the 2006 tournament and while he was also president of Germany’s most successful club, Bayern Munich. (dpa/NAN)
