Report: FIFA to investigate bribery allegations over 2006 World Cup
FIFA will investigate allegations that Germany's bidding committee for the 2006 World Cup used bribes to win the right to host the tournament, reports Ciaran Fahey of the Associated Press.
The investigation is a direct reaction to a Friday report from German news magazine Der Spiegel, which indicated that Germany bought the votes of four members of FIFA's executive committee before the awarding of the World Cup in 2000.
Related - Report: Germany bought right to host 2006 World Cup using bribes
The bidding committee, which was headed by German legend Franz Beckenbauer, reportedly received a loan of 10.3 million Swiss francs from former Adidas CEO Robert Louis-Dreyfus.
The loan was reportedly paid back to Louis-Dreyfus at a value of €6.7 million one year before the staging of the tournament using a FIFA bank account.
FIFA said these "are very serious allegations," and they will be "reviewed as part of the independent internal investigation currently being conducted by FIFA under the direction of its legal director with the assistance of outside counsel."
The world football governing body is currently in turmoil as it faces a range of corruption scandals. Its ethics committee provisionally suspended president Sepp Blatter for 90 days, along with secretary general Jerome Valcke, and UEFA boss Michel Platini, earlier this month.
Swiss authorities launched criminal proceedings against Blatter in September, on top of conducting a separate investigation into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.