Buying votes was “common practice”

In the so-called summer fairy tale trial before the Frankfurt I regional court, the witness Ulrich Hoeneß expressed his conviction that the 2006 World Cup in Germany was not bought. Hoeneß was summoned by the presiding judge, Eva-Marie Distler, after she had received statements from the honorary president of FC Bayern Munich on radio and television that he knew “pretty much exactly what was going on at the time and it was not bribery.”

The entrepreneur Robert Louis-Dreyfus had given Franz Beckenbauer a loan of ten million Swiss francs in 2002. The money ended up in Qatar with Mohamed bin Hammam, the key figure in the finance committee of the International Football Association FIFA, and the DFB redeemed it in euros via FIFA in 2005 , namely 6.7 million, from Louis-Dreyfus and claimed the sum as a business expense, which is why now, more than a decade and a half later, the three former top DFB officials Wolfgang Niersbach, Horst R. Schmidt and Theo Zwanziger are all in one for tax evasion are charged with a particularly serious case.

Hoeneß heard with added time

The investigators have known about the flow of payments for years, even though Beckenbauer had virtually nothing to say about the shifts in his accounts during three interrogations by prosecutors in Germany and Switzerland during his lifetime. The minutes were read out in the courtroom before Hoeneß’s hearing on Monday. Beckenbauer said at the time that he had his people, for example manager Robert Schwan. The answer most often given by Beckenbauer to questions in the 2015 and 2016 interrogations: “No idea.”

The witness Hoeneß, called shortly before two o’clock in the afternoon and heard about the length of a football game with modern, generous added time, remembered his former teammate at FC Bayern Munich and in the national team as follows: “Franz Beckenbauer almost demonstratively never moved Business was taken care of.” Above all, Robert Schwan, who died in July 2002, took over. Schwan negotiated with Robert Louis-Dreyfus. The Frenchman, Hoeneß’ friend and business partner who died in 2009, would not have given money to buy votes.

“I’m laughing my ass off”

And on the other hand: “Robert Schwan doesn’t give himself up for others to benefit, he acts for himself and his friends.” The money, which came from a Kitzbühel account to which Beckenbauer and Schwan had access, was transferred via the Obwaldner Kantonalbank in the Switzerland was transferred to Qatar, and on the first leg of the journey it was given the name “Asian Games 2006” in tranches.

These actually took place in Qatar’s capital Doha that year. In the court files there is a draft contract with the corresponding sum, apparently at least initiated between bin Hammam’s company Kemco and the Schwan company SSK-Rofa. Hoeneß, however, considers the purpose of the payment to be legendary. “The swan and Asian Games,” said Hoeneß, “I’m laughing my ass off.” Transfers need a purpose: “You could also have called it the Alaska Games.” Paper is “patient to mislead people.” .

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In the International Football Association FIFA, however, vote buying was “common practice” and a number of events came about with “a lot, a lot, a lot of bribes”. The 2006 World Cup was the exception. Hoeneß bases his conviction primarily on a conversation with Louis-Dreyfus after 2005, but well before his death in 2009, in which he mentioned the loan “en passant”.

However, the witness Hoeneß said he could say “nothing at all” about the purpose of the payment to bin Hammam’s company. He didn’t talk to anyone about it at the time. Louis-Dreyfus, who mocked Hoeneß about the fact that the DFB itself did not provide ten million, was never asked about the reason for the loan.

And he “didn’t address Beckenbauer at any of our meetings about these unpleasant allegations that had so darkened his last years.”

However, when asked by journalists about the gray areas and shadowy realms of the summer fairy tale, he considered it “my duty” not to hide my opinion in the media, to say what I know and to express my anger at the way it was treated to give expression to an important man”.

The judge said he was a curious person. “Net so very curious,” answered Hoeneß in his Swabian tone. “I’m only curious when it comes to FC Bayern and me.” However, no one at the DFB could say what was actually behind the payment, especially the then President Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, who in August Died in 2015 – even then, said Hoeneß, he was laughing his ass off. “Think about it,” he told the court, “FC Bayern buys a player for 50 million euros and I don’t know anything about it. That’s not possible.” It can’t be the case that millions are being paid and no one knows what for.

As a matter of fact. So why did Mohamed bin Hammam receive ten million Swiss francs?

With regard to this elementary question and her witness Ulrich Hoeneß, Judge Distler stated during his questioning: “They say (in the media, editor): They know pretty well that it wasn’t for buying votes. They don’t know for sure. You kind of know.”