Read the video transcript here arrow up arrow down
Because of the allegation of serious tax evasion against the German Football Association, tax investigators searched the offices and apartments of those responsible.
The charge of the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office: The DFB is said to have not properly taxed the income from perimeter advertising in the stadiums during national team games.
The allegations are directed directly against the football association, not against the Swiss company Infront, which has been marketing perimeter advertising for the DFB for years.
Gunther Latsch, DER SPIEGEL:
"The DFB has made millions from this perimeter advertising over the years, which it should have taxed as a result of economic activity like a company or a group. However, it has taxed it as part of its asset management and thus extremely tax-privileged under the conditions of a non-profit association . That is exactly what did not work because it was traditionally an economic activity. And so there is no question that there is real trouble now. "
The investigators said that around 200 officials were involved in the searches in five federal states.
Specifically, it is about home games of the national team in 2014 and 2015 and 4.7 million euros in unpaid taxes - as well as six former and current DFB officials.
Gunther Latsch, DER SPIEGEL:
"The accused are certainly because they were searched: DFB Vice-President Koch; Reinhard Rauball, long-time head of the DFL, who was also responsible for all the processes in the DFB Presidium. Friedrich Curtius, the current Secretary General, was also searched. the current treasurer, Stephan Osnabrügge, was searched, and the former DFB President Reinhard Grindel, who was also treasurer of the DFB during the years in question, was searched. "
The incumbent DFB President Fritz Keller is currently not affected.
He has only been in office for a year; his predecessor Reinhard Grindel was elected in 2016.
At a press conference on another topic, Keller also commented on the current searches:
Fritz Keller, DFB President
"I can only say that we will cooperate fully in the matter. And I have also stood up for an opening and for complete transparency. And actually I can only welcome government support in the investigations."
Keller now has to steer his association through the crisis.
But how did it get to the point where the world's largest football association is confronted with such serious allegations?
Gunther Latsch, DER SPIEGEL:
"To be honest, I never understood it because it was clear, there were internal warnings, there were also instructions from the tax auditor, and again and again you obviously believed that you would somehow come out of the court slim, and that was how it was today has shown a mistake. "
"Years ago I first found out about the internal debates at the DFB, where people said we couldn't do it like this because it wasn't tax-wise. I don't understand how anyone came up with the idea To do, because it was perfectly clear. Especially since there was also the example of the Bundesliga. The Bundesliga clubs basically had the same problem for years and then around the turn of the millennium some later founded Spielbetriebs-GmbHs or stock corporations to escape this trap. That on the one hand you have the non-profit status, which of course is always endangered by business activity, and where there is always a risk of tax trouble. "
Due to the social and societal tasks that sports clubs take on, the state grants them tax breaks.
The prerequisite for this is that the associations pursue charitable purposes.
If the current allegations are confirmed, the non-profit status of the DFB could be withdrawn retrospectively.
Gunther Latsch, DER SPIEGEL:
"It may be that for the 2014, 2015 tax years in question - and this is the only issue now in connection with the searches due to these offenses - the charitable status for the years 2014, 2015 can be revoked and the DFB then all of its income That means he has to give up the tax advantages that he had from the public benefit. "
If the accused have consciously given their association a tax advantage through their actions or non-action, they could face severe penalties.
Gunther Latsch, DER SPIEGEL:
"You saw it in the Hoeneß case. The rule of thumb is that if it is more than a million, a suspended sentence can no longer be pronounced. We are at the beginning of the investigation. We have to wait and see how it goes on and whether it will continue to be accused. But with amounts running into the millions, prison is now standard in this country too. "
