logo
Germany soccer federation fined for tax evasion related to pre-2006 World Cup payment to FIFA

Germany soccer federation fined for tax evasion related to pre-2006 World Cup payment to FIFA

Washington Post4 hours ago

BERLIN — The German soccer federation has been convicted of tax evasion related to the awarding of the World Cup hosted by the country in 2006.
A regional court in Frankfurt fined the federation, known by its German acronym DFB, 110,000 euros ($128,000) at the culmination of the nearly 16-month trial on Wednesday.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

FIFA investigates if Real Madrid's Rüdiger was racially abused by opponent at Club World Cup
FIFA investigates if Real Madrid's Rüdiger was racially abused by opponent at Club World Cup

San Francisco Chronicle​

time38 minutes ago

  • San Francisco Chronicle​

FIFA investigates if Real Madrid's Rüdiger was racially abused by opponent at Club World Cup

MIAMI (AP) — FIFA has opened a disciplinary case at the Club World Cup after Real Madrid defender Antonio Rüdiger claimed he was racially abused by Pachuca captain Gustavo Cabral. Rüdiger, who is Black, and Cabral clashed in the final minutes of Madrid's 3-1 win Sunday in Charlotte, North Carolina. After the German player spoke to referee Ramon Abatti, the Brazilian match official made the FIFA-approved signal with raised arms crossed to start an anti-discrimination protocol. FIFA confirmed late Tuesday it is formally investigating. 'Following an assessment of the match reports, the FIFA disciplinary committee has opened proceedings against Pachuca player Gustavo Cabral in relation to the incident involving him and Real Madrid's Antonio Rüdiger,' the soccer body said. A verdict is likely before Pachuca plays Thursday in its final Group H game, against Al Hilal in Nashville. It will be Pachuca's last game at the Club World Cup because the Mexican team cannot finish higher than third in the standings and will not advance to the round of 16. ___

2025 Women's Euros Group A Preview: Hosts Switzerland Face Nordic Opposition
2025 Women's Euros Group A Preview: Hosts Switzerland Face Nordic Opposition

Forbes

timean hour ago

  • Forbes

2025 Women's Euros Group A Preview: Hosts Switzerland Face Nordic Opposition

Switzerland is set to host its first major women's football tournament with this summer's Euros. The 14th edition of the UEFA Women's Euro is set to kick off in Switzerland on July 2. The hosts will compete in Group A, which looks tough to call from the get-go. 🇨🇭 Switzerland Current FIFA Ranking: #23 Euro History: 2 previous appearances; best result: group stage (2017 and 2022) Major International Trophies: N/A Switzerland are in the curious position of having reached the knockouts of the FIFA Women's World Cup in both of their appearances at the tournament, but never having made it past the group stage at the Euros. Their status as a pot 1 team should theoretically give them a good chance of changing that this time around, but their group looks anything but straightforward. Legendary Swedish head coach Pia Sundhage took on Swiss national team job in 2024, aiming to set the team up for a strong home Euros campaign. She got off to quite a good start, but her side could not sustain that momentum and will head into this tournament on an eight-match winless streak, which include all six of their group matches from the latest UEFA Women's Nations League. In truth, the Swiss squad is far from the strongest in their group, let alone the Euros. They are not helped by the fact that they seem to be in the middle of a generational shift, as five of their starters in their last match were aged 23 or younger, while all but two others were 28 or older. Sundhage's back five setups in the Nations League suggested that she aims to make her team as tough to break down as possible and hope to get some joy on the break, but that could be a tough ask given their lack of serious firepower up front. Sydney Schertenleib may be the youngest player in the Swiss squad, but she could well also be their most important figure. While more experienced figures will be tasked with keeping things tight in midfield and defense, the Barcelona starlet may have to make something out of nothing going forward. Despite her young age, Sydney Schertenleib stands out on the field thanks to her height and yet is ... More extremely elegant on the ball. (Photo by Sathire Kelpa/Eurasia) The 18-year-old forward looks a very promising prospect, having regularly featured for a star-studded Barcelona side in the latter part of the 2024/25 season. She also seems to have the trust of her national team head coach as she started all six recent Nations League games. Schertenleib's on-ball ability might just lead to an unforgettable moment or two at the Euros. While Switzerland will surely like to make their Euros knockout debut on home soil, home advantage might not prove enough to get the better of the likes of Norway and Iceland in this group. 🇳🇴 Norway Current FIFA Ranking: #16 Euro History: 12 previous appearances; best result: Champions (1987 and 1993) Other major International Trophies: FIFA Women's World Cup (1995) and Olympic gold medal (2000) Despite being one of the most successful teams in Europe historically, Norway have always flattered to deceive of late. They have not reached a major final for over a decade now and have not won the European crown in over 30 years, thus dropping to their lowest-ever FIFA ranking. Norway still have some of the world's very best players, so their only challenge is to put everything together nicely. Gemma Grainger has been given that task since 2024, but has not gotten everything to click so far. The two-time champions needed to go through the play-offs to qualify for these Euros, and they only won two of their six Nations League games earlier this year. The Welsh head coach has a wealth of attacking talent to work with but has yet to find a winning combination, so she may well continue tweaking some things through the Euros. She looks set on using a back four formation, but most things beyond that could still be up in the air. Being the current Ballon d'Or runner-up, Caroline Graham Hansen might be under even more pressure to deliver than usual in this tournament. She could 'only' register 30 goal involvements for her club side last season, marking a significant drop from a stellar 32-goal and 28-assist 2023/24 campaign. Evidently, the Barcelona winger is quite a handful even when she is not at her best. Caroline Graham Hansen's sharp changes of direction make her a nightmare to defend against. (Photo ... More by Marcio Machado/Eurasia) Hansen generally likes to play out wide on the right wing, but she has been asked to do a job in a more central role for her national team at times. So, it will be interesting to see whether Grainger asks her to adapt to her fellow attackers or sets the side up to get the best out of the Barcelona star. Despite their inconsistent recent form and subpar major tournament track record over the last few years, Norway will aim to reach the knockouts at a minimum. Having finished ahead of both Switzerland and Iceland in their latest Nations League group, they should be backed to top this group. 🇮🇸 Iceland Current FIFA Ranking: #14 Euro History: 4 appearances; best result: quarterfinalists (2013) Major International Trophies: N/A Perhaps surprisingly, Iceland are the highest-ranked nation in Group A. So, they must surely aim to significantly improve their record of one win in 12 matches at the Euros proper. Iceland head into the Euros on a nine-match winless streak, but their form is not as big of a concern as it might seem. They have faced some quite tough opposition in the last few months and managed to hold their own, suffering respectable defeats in two friendlies against the United States and putting up two tough fights against France as well as drawing against group-mates Switzerland and Norway in the recent Nations League campaign. Thorsteinn Halldórsson's side can often be quite tough to break down defensively, so their attacking performances could well determine their success in this tournament. Sveindís Jane Jónsdóttir is approaching the age where she is expected to go from being a promising talent to now becoming a reliable key player for her teams, and there will be few better stages for her to do that than the Euros. The 24-year-old forward can pose a serious threat in transition both through her runs in behind and ball carrying, and she also has an absolute rocket of a long throw up her locker which Iceland will surely utilize. Despite their high ranking, Iceland are perhaps slightly underrated going into this tournament. They have the potential to frustrate stronger sides in the knockouts, so as long as they avoid stumbling in the group stage, they might turn out to be a surprise package this summer. 🇫🇮 Finland Current FIFA Ranking: #26 Euro History: 4 appearances; best result: semifinalists (2005) Major International Trophies: N/A Finland got the better of Scotland in the Euro qualifying playoffs to qualify for the tournament. Now, they will aim to register their first win in well over a decade and a half on the continent's biggest stage. Finland played in League B of the Nations League earlier this year, so they came up against relatively weaker opposition. They finished second behind Serbia in their group, with other mixed results including a comfortable win over Hungary and a goalless draw against Belarus. Those matches should not inform much of what they will do at the Euros, as they tend to switch tactics to try and become more defensively solid against stronger opposition. They shipped four goals to the likes of Norway and Italy last year despite making such tweaks, so they will have to step up their defensive organisation if they are to do well at this tournament. Tall center back Eva Nyström will be a key presence in Finland's back line both with and without the ball. She will have to show the best of her anticipation and reading of the game to clean things up at the back, while her height and aerial presence will also prove critical. The West Ham defender can be quite a good distributor given some time and space on the ball, so she will have a role to play in launching her team's attacks too. Qualifying for the Euros ahead of the higher-ranked Scotland already was a success for Finland, so going anywhere beyond that would be a huge surprise.

German FA fined by court in 2006 World Cup payment affair
German FA fined by court in 2006 World Cup payment affair

Yahoo

time3 hours ago

  • Yahoo

German FA fined by court in 2006 World Cup payment affair

Flags with the logo of the German Football Federation (DFB) fly outside the RheinEnergie stadium. Fabian Strauch/dpa The German Football Federation (DFB) was fined €110,000 ($128,000) for tax evasion by a Frankfurt court on Wednesday, in a trial relating to a payment around the 2006 World Cup. Frankfurt district court judge Eva-Marie Distler spoke of a high criminal energy from the DFB but did not follow the prosecution which wanted the DFB to pay €270,000. Advertisement "In the opinion of the chamber, there is no doubt that the DFB evaded taxes, and that the parties involved condoned this", Distler said, adding that the DFB made "a catastrophic impression" in its reappraisal of the affair. The DFB was officially ordered to pay €130,000, but €20,000 were waived due to a delay in proceedings contrary to the rule of law. The case centred on a payment of €6.7 million the DFB sent via the ruling body FIFA to the late French businessman Robert Louis-Dreyfus in 2005. Louis-Dreyfus had earlier sent a loan of 10 million Swiss francs to World Cup organizer Franz Beckenbauer. The sum then arrived in an account of now disgraced FIFA top official Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar - for reasons not known. Advertisement The DFB said the €6.7 million were for a World Cup gala event, which never took place, and put them down as operating expenses in 2006. That eventually led to the trial because the public prosecutor's office named this inadmissible and said that the DFB evaded €2.7 million in taxes. DFB lawyer Jan Olaf Leisner said that even though it was a concealed repayment, it could still be classified as a business expense, and thus no tax evasion took place. Naming the DFB "the loser" in the case, Distler said it could have come clean via a voluntary disclosure in 2015, when the affair broke, but that this was not the case. Advertisement "The clocks tick differently at the DFB. Lawyers' fees are being produced there in astronomical amounts. Responsibility is externalised by those responsible. Nobody must expect repercussions," Distler said. Distler accused the DFB of a massive lack of interest in clarifying the events. "No representative of the DFB took part in either the investigation or the trial. You have to ask: do they not take the justice system seriously?" she said. The judge urged the current DFB leadership to establish "a culture of looking and not looking away" in the future. Former DFB presidents Theo Zwanziger and Wolfgang Niersbach and ex secretary-general Horst R Schmidt were also defendants in the case along with the DFB as an entity. Advertisement But they all paid sums to charity to have their cases dropped due to the complex nature of who knew what and when. The trio had consistently denied tax evasion. "All three acted with the common will that the true reason for the payment should not be publicised, but concealed," Distler said.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store