It was the year 2012 and Franz Beckenbauer still an icon of football: world champion as a player, world champion as coach, world championship boss for Germany 2006.
That then the Russians with their penchant for icons and the German football emperor under contract, it seemed only logical.
The association of Russian gas producers hired Beckenbauer as sports ambassador. He should for a lot of money - accurate buzz never came to light - future Russian sports major events with its imperial aura in the best light.
It looked like a happy end-of-life deal - reputation for money.
But now leaked mails on a Russian disclosure platform indicate that the consideration was not only in the future, but possibly had long been provided: namely with the sale of the voice of Franz Beckenbauer two years earlier in the award of the 2018 World Cup to Russia.
The shops Beckenbauer are thus once again in a questionable light. The documents published by the Russian website "The Insider" from the former application committee for the 2018 World Cup football champions suggest that Beckenbauer, as a former member of the Fifa Executive Committee, could have received millions over his advisor Radmann for his vote.
Christian Hartmann / REUTERS
Awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia
Literally, the paper states: "Beckenbauer's advisor Fedor Radmann offers his vote against generous payment for his advisory services - 3 million." Another 1.5 million euros Radmann should concede in case Russia would win the contract. For the money Radmann promised even "8 - 9 votes" for Russia in the executive committee.
Beckenbauer has always competed for sale, also in connection with the 2018 World Cup. He did not respond to a current request from SPIEGEL. Radmann's lawyer, Norbert Scharf, said the allegations were "inaccurate, and Mr. Radmann clearly rejects this." Even Andreas Abold, a confidant of Beckenbauer and Radmann from the application period, had already denied any wrongdoing in the past.
The World Football Federation Fifa had the World Championships in 2018 and 2022 Russia and Qatar on December 2, 2010 awarded. Some nations had initially applied for both World Championships (2018 and 2022). In the end, the European nations bid for 2018, the non-European countries for 2022. Russia won the 2018 World Cup with 13 of the 22 Fifa votes in round two. Qatar received 14 votes in the fourth round and won against the USA (8) - Australia was knocked out of last round with just one vote in the first round, still behind South Korea and Japan.
Beckenbauer should have been "benevolent"
If the now appearing Russian mails are real, they come from an apparently hacked mail account of Sergei Kapkov, then Duma deputy. They circulated between Kapkow and two senior political advisors with close ties to former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. Premier was then Vladimir Putin. Schuwalow was also president of the application committee.
The compilation contains dossiers on all Fifa Executive Committee members. According to Beckenbauer: "After our contacts with the advisors of the Australian application, we received information about the willingness of FB to support the application of Russia, we wanted a meeting in Moscow with the highest leaders of the application." In another paper, labeled as "confidential," the Russians complain that Beckenbauer, while "benevolent," prefers to communicate through his "trusted Radmann." He was ready to "consider the possibility of voting for Russia", but this "additional efforts in this direction necessary."
Other Fifa-Vorstandler are described in the documents as commercially. For example, a high-powered entrepreneur from the Executive Committee, who did splendid business with Qatar at the time and sold a modest piece of land for over 30 million euros to the Qatari state fund half a year after his vote for the emirate.
18 out of 24 Fifa ex-members from that time are under pressure or suspended
Two of the 24 members of the former Fifa Executive Committee were suspended for corruption shortly before the election in late 2010. 18 others were partially imprisoned for life in the years thereafter, condemned as part of the spectacular Fifa process in the US or are otherwise involved in dirty machinations.
The leaked documents are also signed by Andrej Sorokin, then managing director of the bidding committee, later chief organizer of the 2018 World Cup. Since 2017, Sorokin has been a Uefa representative to the Fifa Council, the successor to the executive committee. Actually, ethical procedures in Uefa and Fifa should now be initiated against him. Sorokin rejected all allegations related to the documents. He spoke of counterfeiting and claimed that Russia had made extensive comments - apparently referring to the in-house Fifa investigation several years ago.
A November November confidential policy statement states that more financial resources must be made available that are not subject to the formalities of the official budget - which would require the oligarchs to pay. In fact, from then on billionaires like Roman Abramovich or Alisher Usmanov increasingly involved in the World Cup project.
That these documents have appeared is a small sensation
For the first time ever, such documents have emerged from the Russian application committee. That's almost a sensation. For so far it was considered by investigators that the Russian intelligence services, which accompanied the application at every turn, almost all traces have blurred.
The Russians had denied entry to former US Attorney Michael Garcia, who once worked on a FIFA World Cup dossier on behalf of Fifa. Garcia's staff from the so-called investigation chamber of the Fifa Ethics Committee wrote in the final report succinctly that the computers of the application committee had been destroyed, corruption could not be proven. Sorokin says Russia has fully cooperated.
On the other hand, secret service agents, who were then obliged by the English World Cup application committee, had stated on protocol that states had bribed FIFA officials - meaning Russia and Qatar. One of the sources of intelligence was Christopher Steele, an MI6 officer who spent many years in Moscow and later gained worldwide fame as the draftsman of US President Donald Trump. Among the many corrupt Fifa executive members Franz Beckenbauer is "the most corrupt", so it is since 2014 in the documents of a hearing of the British Parliament. At that time Beckenbauer was suspended by the Fifa Ethics Committee because he had not cooperated with Garcia. Fifa said there was nothing to add to the Garcia report. Anyone who has evidence of "unethical behavior" could transmit it to Fifa.
In terms of content, the details from the Russian documents are a perfect match for other, well-documented pieces of evidence from those wild years of double World Cup applications. So Fedor Radmann was actually obliged as an advisor to the Australian World Cup application, in a package with his long-time partner Andreas Abold - and thus Beckenbauer. That was part of a deal of the DFB with the Australian Association, which for the application for the Women's World Cup 2011 renounced that went to Germany.
Martin Hoffmann / imago images
Football whistleblower Bonita Mersiades
"Australia's application manager Frank Lowy then started a deal with the Russians in mid-2009," recalls Bonita Mersiades, the marketing director of the Australian bid. "Lowy said Australia could win the World Cup only in cooperation with the Russians." That's why Radmann hired the Russians on an Australian contract, says Mersiades. She herself was pushed out of the application team by Radmann and another consultant, Peter Hargitay, because she did not accept the dubious activities of the consultants. She became a whistleblower and presented a breathtaking book of revelations: "Whatever it takes" was released in early 2018.
Radmann received at least $ 3.63 million in Australia - which is evidenced by an external investigation. Hargitay cashed 1.45 million in Australia and worked in parallel on the Australian contract, like Radmann, also for Russia. In total, the European consultants who acquired a FIFA vote received more than 15 million Australian dollars - financed by tax credits.
The whistleblower Mersiades also spoke with former FIFA President Blatter for her book. This gave Amazing and since then unchallenged to protocol: "I know that Radmann and Beckenbauer earned a lot of money."
However, Beckenbauer did not even vote for Australia in the end. "The one voice that got Australia came from me," Blatter claimed.
