German Politicians Seek Investigation Into Country’s 2006 World Cup Bid

A number of German politicians want an inquiry into Germany’s 2006 World Cup bidding process amid the recent FIFA corruption scandal, local media reported.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Last week, seven high-ranking FIFA officials were arrested in Switzerland on a US federal corruption warrant. The Swiss authorities also launched a separate probe into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup tournaments, to be held in Russia and Qatar respectively.

"After the events of recent days, everything behind each World Cup bid must be transparent," Dagmar Freitag, German lawmaker and the Chairman of the Sports Committee was quoted as saying by Frankfurter Allgemeinen on Saturday.

Another German politician from the Green Party, Ozcan Mutlu asked Chancellor Angela Merkel and Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere to revise and investigate Germany’s bid for the 2006 FIFA World Cup tournament, the newspaper reported.

"The greater our common interest should be to make it unequivocally clear that Germany was awarded the 2006 World Cup without corruption or other perks," Multu was quoted by the newspaper.

On Saturday, some German media outlets claimed that the country had won illegally the right to host the 2006 World Cup. German Football Federation president Wolfgang Niersbach denied the allegations.

Germany won the right to host the 2006 World Cup in July 2000.