Ex-official slams German FA over bill for 6.7m euros
A former official, who helped organise the scandal-hit 2006 World Cup, has slammed the German Football Association (DFB) after receiving a demand for 6.7 million euros ($7.49m). Fedor Radmann, the deputy president of the organising committee for the 2006 finals hosted by Germany, says he received the bill at his home address in Switzerland and was informed he had 20 days, which have now expired, to settle the huge sum. "This is outrageous and baseless," the 71-year-old told SID, an AFP subsidiary. The sum of 6.7 million euros corresponds to the cash transferred by the organising committee of the 2006 World Cup to football's world governing body FIFA, which has never been satisfactorily explained, in 2000, just days before Germany won the right to host the finals six years later. The DFB's interim president Rainer Koch has denied directly sending Radmann a specific bill, but said the association had simply "taken the necessary steps" to start legal proceedings for any "possible claims". "I received the letter from (Switzerland's) Debt Enforcement Office on January 8 and responded immediately," said Radmann. "Now the DFB must prove they have a legitimate demand, but there are absolutely no grounds. "This will come to nothing." Both Franz Beckenbauer, the chairman of the 2006 World Cup organising committee, and Wolfgang Niersbach, the former president of the DFB who resigned over the scandal, which first came to light last October, have denied any wrongdoing. They are both cooperating with German and Swiss investigators who are looking into the awarding of the 2006 World Cup, which Germany won by a narrow vote from South Africa. Rahmann claims other members of the 2006 organising committee, including Beckenbauer and Niersbach, have received similar legal letters, which "all have the same goal - to impede limitation". "I have zero understanding for these 'clever' men at the DFB," added Rahmann, who says there was no contact from the DFB before the bill arrived.
