IIn the tax affair at the German Football Association (DFB), former President Reinhard Grindel (60) and former General Secretary Friedrich Curtius (46) are no longer being investigated. The public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt/Main confirmed this to the sports information service. The first thing reported by the “kicker” was that the proceedings against the two long-standing association officials were discontinued against a “five-figure payment” each.
Curtius told the trade magazine that he agreed to the appointment for procedural reasons. Grindel explained that he did this solely “for family and professional reasons” to “prevent long-term damage to my integrity”. All physical evidence and witness statements have shown that he is innocent. When it came to tax classification, Grindel “always relied on the advice of the DFB’s financial experts and advisors”.
Anger about advertising revenue
On October 7, 2020, a total of six high-ranking DFB officials were searched. According to the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office, the DFB did not properly declare income from perimeter advertising at national team games in 2014 and 2015 in the amount of 4.7 million euros, the accusation was.
The investigations against Curtius’ predecessor Helmut Sandrock had already been stopped in May 2021, as well as against Reinhard Rauball, who as DFL supervisory board chairman was also DFB vice. In October 2021, the then DFB Vice Rainer Koch was hired.
The only thing left is the former treasurer Stephan Osnabrügge. As the “kicker” further reports, Osnabrugge did not agree to an offer of hiring against a monetary requirement because he was convinced that he had not violated any tax obligations.
