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Fifa crisis: German FA president Wolfgang Niersbach quits over World Cup scandal

The German football association president, Wolfgang Niersbach, resigned on Monday over a 2006 World Cup scandal that has tarnished the reputation of the world’s biggest football federation.
Niersbach, who is being investigated for tax evasion in relation to the affair, said he was taking the political responsibility for a controversial €6.7m payment to Fifa that was allegedly used to bribe officials of world football’s governing body to vote for Germany’s World Cup bid. He again denied any wrongdoing . 
Niersbach has said the money was paid as part of a financing agreement with Fifaby tournament organisers to secure a grant of 250m Swiss francs.
“In order to protect the DFB and the position, I step down as DFB president with a heavy heart,” Niersbach told reporters. “I decided to resign because I realised I had to take the political responsibility.”
At the heart of the investigation is the €6.7m payment from the DFB to Fifa in 2005 that Der Spiegel magazine alleged was a return on a loan from the then Adidas CEO Robert-Louis Dreyfus to help buy votes for Germany’s World Cup bid at the Fifa election in 2000.

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