FRANKFURT: In a political feud that could tarnish the reputation of Franz Beckenbauer, the former president of the German football federation has accused 2006 World Cup officials of knowing about a questionable payment to FIFA as early as 2002.

Theo Zwanziger said on Tuesday in a statement that his successor, current German federation president Wolfgang Niersbach, was aware of a 6.7 million euro ($7.38 million) payment to FIFA years earlier than previously thought. Zwanziger has called the payment a slush fund used to buy votes.

“It was not a solo thing by Franz Beckenbauer, the top officials of the organising committee were aware of it, Wolfgang Niersbach, Horst R. Schmidt and Fedor Radmann,” Zwanziger said in a statement through his lawyer.

All three were top officials in the body at the time.

Niersbach has said he first heard of the payment this year and learned the details only last week from Beckenbauer, the former Germany great who was the president of the 2006 organising committee.

He said Beckenbauer had reached the private deal with FIFA President Sepp Blatter.

Blatter, now suspended by the FIFA ethics committee from a different investigation, and FIFA have denied any knowledge of the agreement, while Beckenbauer said on Monday it had been his mistake to go through with it.

Niersbach, who took over from Zwanziger in 2012 and was previously an official with the World Cup organising committee, has denied any wrongdoing and says the payment to FIFA was in exchange for a financial grant worth 250 million Swiss francs (about $255 million).

A law firm tasked by the German football federation to investigate the affair said on Tuesday it could be weeks before it finishes its work.

Published in Dawn October 29th, 2015

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