Legal proceedings against Beckenbauer

German FA (DFB) opens legal case against Franz Beckenbauer, former members and FIFA in a bid to potential damages arising from the 2006 World Cup bribe. DFB has taken necessary measures versus: former president of the World Cup organizing committee Franz Beckenbauer and vice president Fedor Radmann, ex-DFB presidents - Theo Zwanziger and Wolfgang Niersbach, former DFB secretary general Horst Schmidt and FIFA. Central to the affair is a suspect payment made by DFB to FIFA just before the 2006 tournament was awarded. DFB previously said that the money was a loan of 10 million Swiss francs (6.7 million euros) from then Adidas boss Robert Louis-Dreyfus paid to FIFA in 2002 to gain a much larger grant for the World Cup organizing committee. Niersbach said the payment had been arranged personally between Beckenbauer and FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who, of course, denied to have any knowledge of it. Behind this initial payment also prompted an ongoing tax evasion probe by German authorities against Zwanziger, Niersbach and Schmidt.