Fedor Radmann developed his qualities at a young age. Once, when the employees in the Bayreuth restaurant business of his father went into the strike, he had, it is said, as a young guy unceremoniously hired students directly from the lecture hall of the local university, which kept the tap running. Organize, use contacts, network - that has always been the life of Fedor Radmann.
Strippenzieher, who became the middle name of today's 75-year-old, was at that time in the Bayreuth festival gastronomy of Radmann senior no different than later with the Fifa and the German Football Association or as a consultant to the Australian World Cup application, which is now the Allegations of voice trading. In Bayreuth, in the world of Wagner operas, he used to like to "look behind the scenes" even as a teenager, he once told the "world". Backstage, he has always felt most comfortable.
Therefore, his role as Sherpa of Franz Beckenbauer was also cut to heart. It was his biggest role, the big opera, so to speak. Beckenbauer was in the front of the Heldentenor, Radmann wrote the score for him. For this job of his life, he has been able to warm up for years, beginning in the late sixties, when Willi Daume brought the young Radmann to the Organizing Committee for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. At that time, in the job of the head of the tourism, accommodation and information unit, pushing the scenery in the sports world became his passion.
Adidas, ISL, DFB - all there
In fact, he has basically gone through all the stations that make you a weatherproof chief lobbyist. He was with the NOK and has established the connection to the International Olympic Committee there. He was then for years with Adidas, the equipment giant from Herzogenaurach, without which in the football world no decision will be made, responsible for the Department of International Relations. A subject he continued to fill when he had long since left Adidas: international relations, that could be on his business card under his name.
Adidas went to ISL, the sports marketer of the Kirch Group, and it was the years when the agency was spinning the big wheel, monopolizing major sports events and their television broadcasts, by whatever means. ISL, that became the acronym for corruption in sport. Back then, there were those involved who fell decades later over their hand-off policy: Joseph Blatter, Mohammed Bin Hammam, Joao Havelange. Radmann started coming in and out of them.
Walter Beer DPA
Blatter, Beckenbauer, Radmann - of course
The way to Franz Beckenbauer was not far from there. The Emperor and his longtime manager and door opener Robert Schwan had always had good connections to the ISL, the adidas owner family Dassler, who was a shareholder in the ISL, was also short of the line to the equipment supplier. Radmann was in the middle of everything instead of just being there.
In 2003 he had to go as an OK vice
When Beckenbauer was appointed OC head of the 2006 World Cup, Radmann rose to his vice-president in 2001, but he continued to run the consultancy contracts for Adidas and ISL. When this became public two years later, Radmann had to give up the office. Officially it was said at that time, Radmann had "for personal reasons asked permission to leave the operational business."
But Radmann would not be Radmann if he had not come back through the back door. As a consultant to the Organizing Committee, he continued to cash. The figures come only in 2016 in the course of the investigation of the summer fairy tale affair to the public: As vice president, he paid out 60,000 euros a month, once there was a bonus payment of 500,000 euros, the cause is not very clear. When he had to leave in 2003, he was granted a severance payment of 250,000 euros, as a consultant, he earned 320,000 euros a year thereafter. All in all, the World Cup brought him around three million euros.
Enterprising cash flows from the Fifa over million sums, which were actually meant for Beckenbauer, but over the account Radmanns ran, were added later. The Beckenbauer-Radmann connection was already so close at that time that Beckenbauer himself, when interrogated by Swiss investigators, said they were "like Siamese twins" when it came to business. The fact that this could become a problem at the latest with the allocation of the football world championships 2018 and 2022, was obviously aware of both the: Fifa ex-member Beckenbauer, who could vote for the host, and the adviser Radmann, one of the World Cup candidates with advice and practical help was standing.
Matthias Schrader DPA
Horst Schmidt, Beckenbauer, Radmann, Wolfgang Niersbach
So Radmann appeared only as a clerk of the Australians on, officially was the Radmann friend Andreas Abold, the one who supervised the application. Abold, Beckenbauer, Radmann - a connection that continues today: In South Africa, the three years ago bought the winery Lammershoek. Wine is crisis-proof.
Also in the Freshfields report of the DFB, which should investigate the incidents surrounding the summer fairy tale, Radmann is almost not mentioned, however, has the Fifa investigator Michael Garcia, who has looked on behalf of the World Association for the World Cup allocations to Russia and Qatar, The role Radmann clearly criticized two years ago. Garcia had questioned even to Radmann himself, the "Bild" newspaper has calculated then that according to the minutes he said 76 times, he knew of nothing. The former DFB boss Grindel responded almost sighing: "It is very depressing, which is mainly to read about the role of former World Cup-OK member Fedor Radmann in the Garcia report." Nothing happened after that.
Strippenzieher, godfather, shadow man, relationship artist, man for the rough, the spider on the net - Radmann has earned in the course of his lobby career many attributes. However, he puts it differently. On the occasion of his 75th birthday he entrusted the "Berchtesgadener Anzeiger": "I am extremely grateful for my life, and by meeting different extraordinary people I was able to develop accordingly."