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DFB: Public prosecutor's office investigates because of Adidas donations

2021-11-18T10:16:14.071Z


Tax proceedings remain an ongoing issue for the German Football Association. Now the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office moved to the headquarters of Adidas - and took documents with them that should shed light on deals with the DFB.


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DFB player with ball

Photo: Alex Grimm / Bongarts / Getty Images

The Frankfurt public prosecutor's office is again investigating the German Football Association (DFB) on charges of tax evasion and has taken documents from Adidas headquarters.

The authority confirmed this to the German press agency on Thursday.

According to reports in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and “Bild”, the issue is the taxation of benefits in kind by the long-standing DFB sponsor between 2015 and 2020. The investigators visited the Adidas headquarters in Herzogenaurach on Wednesday.

"There was no search, the documents were given out voluntarily," said Frankfurt Public Prosecutor Nadja Niesen.

She did not provide details on the procedure.

"We can confirm that adidas is fully cooperating with the responsible authorities in the context of tax proceedings that are not pending against Adidas itself, but against a third party," the sporting goods manufacturer said on request.

"Search measures at Adidas did not take place due to the commitment to fully support the investigation."

The allegations related to benefits in kind from Adidas first became known in January.

The DFB confirmed at the time that as a precaution "after informing the Presidium, a late report based on a maximum assessment to the tax office" had been made.

A newly introduced system for tax error prevention has "shown a possible source of error", whereupon the DFB sent a message to the responsible tax office.

In October 2020, in another case, the business premises of the DFB and the private apartments of several officials were searched by tax investigators.

It was about the taxation of income from perimeter advertising at home games of the national team in 2014 and 2015. The DFB escaped taxation of around 4.7 million euros, the investigators said at the time.

At the end of October this year, the public prosecutor closed the tax proceedings against DFB interim boss Rainer Koch.

The President of the Bavarian Football Association is also a member of the UEFA executive.

A few months ago, the proceedings against the former top DFB officials Reinhard Rauball and Helmut Sandrock had been discontinued.

A total of six officials were accused of involvement in tax evasion in particularly serious cases.

Koch is currently leading the DFB together with Peter Peters on an interim basis after Fritz Keller resigned in May.

A new president is to be elected at the Bundestag on March 11, 2022 in Frankfurt am Main.

Koch then no longer wants to run as 1st Vice President.

sak / dpa

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2021-11-18

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