Summer fairy tale process: DFB convicted

The German Football Association (DFB) was guilty of the summer fairy tale process and was sentenced to a fine of EUR 110,000 for tax evasion. The presiding judge Eva-Marie Distler announced this judgment on the 34th and last day of negotiation before the Frankfurt Regional Court.

The public prosecutor had accused the DFB of having evaded taxes of around 2.7 million euros in the 2006 World Cup and requested a fine of EUR 270,000. The court followed in his judgment of the view of the prosecution, which had spoken of a high criminal energy in the case in the beginning of their plea at the beginning of the week.

“According to the Chamber, the DFB has evaded taxes,” said Distler in her reasoning. Overall, the DFB was even sentenced to payment of 130,000 euros. The association was issued 20,000 euros because of the “right of proceedings”. However, the DFB, which, according to Distler, has given a “catastrophic picture” when dealing with the affair, must also bear the costs of the procedure.

The DFB had asserted its innocence until the end. “We believe that there was no tax evasion,” said DFB lawyer Jan-Olaf Leisner in his plea last Monday. In this case, the tax authorities had not suffered financial damage, but rather posted an interest advantage of 650,000 euros.

With the conviction, the association’s opportunities will disappear to a hoped -for tax repayment of 22 million euros. The DFB had to pay this sum in 2017 after the charitable status for 2006 had been withdrawn retrospectively due to the World Cup affair. In 2022, on the other hand, the DFB had filed a lawsuit from the Kassel tax management court, which has not yet been decided.

In the core, the process was a DFB payment of 6.7 million euros to the World Association FIFA from April 2005. This sum was forwarded to an account by Robert Louis-Dreyfus and corresponded to the ten million Swiss francs that Franz Beckenbauer received from the French entrepreneur in 2002.

The DFB veiled the repayment of the loan as a contribution to a planned World Cup opening gala, which was later canceled, and declared it a year later as an operating edition.

Originally, the former DFB top officials Theo Zwanziger, Wolfgang Niersbach and Horst R. Schmidt were charged in the process. The procedure against all three accused who had always rejected the allegations strictly was finally terminated against a money requirement.