Niersbach defies his doctors’ advice to appear at World Cup cash trial
BELLINZONA: Former German football federation president Wolfgang Niersbach made a surprise appearance as the 2006 World Cup cash trial staggered forward in Bellinzona.
Niersbach, Theo Zwanziger, Horst R Schmidt and Urs Linsi all charges relating to a controversial $10m payment from the late Robert Louis-Dreyfus, then ceo of Adidas.
The sum was loaned to the World Cup bidding committee but ultimately repaid out of organisational support funds by FIFA – not to Louis-Dreyfus but to Mohamed bin Hammam, then the president of the Asian confederation.
The trial was opened formally on Monday but was immediately adjourned for two days because only Swiss businessman Linsi attended. The other three – all German – submitted justifications for their absence on health grounds.
Judge Sylvia Frei has requested a court doctor assess the validity of certificates submitted.
Niersbach attended the Wednesday session while saying, through his lawyers, that he did so against the advice of his doctors. He had accepted the health risk because he wanted to clear his name.
The Swiss Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona is only a few kilometers away from the Italian region Lombardy, which is in lockdown because of the coronavirus crisis.
Zwanziger is a former president of the DFB, Schmidt is a former general secretary and Niersbach was communications director of the 2006 organising operation and later chief executive then president of the DFB. Linsi was general secretary of world federation FIFA.
The four deny charges relating to a controversial $10m payment from the late Robert Louis-Dreyfus, then ceo of Adidas. The sum was loaned to the World Cup bidding committee but ultimately repaid out of organisational support funds by FIFA – not to Louis-Dreyfus but to Mohamed bin Hammam, then the president of the Asian confederation.
The defendants, in any case, are expected to object to the trial going ahead in the absence of Franz Beckenbauer, the 2006 bid and organising president, who has been excluded from the process because of ill health.
The court has set aside three weeks for the trial but prosecutors face a race against time: if the case is not concluded before April 27 it will fall because of a statute of limitations.
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