With Wolfgang Niersbach, a former defendant in the “Summer fairy tale process” testified as a witness. His memory fails exactly in those places where it becomes interesting for the court and the case is relevant.
There are days in his life, even for a long time ago, he could still remember the processes very well. July 6, 2000 was such a day, says Wolfgang Niersbach on Thursday (January 30th, 2025) before the district court in Frankfurt am Main. He sits in the witness stand in the procedure for severe tax evasion after he was charged. The proceedings against him had been terminated against the payment of 25,000 euros.
July 6, 2000, Zurich. It was a wonderful day, according to the 74 -year -old Niersbach. On that day, Germany was awarded the contract to organize the World Cup, which went down in the history and mountains of court files as “summer fairy tales”.
Ominous payment to FIFA
There is also a fax in these files on November 23, 2004, which deals with a payment of the German Organizational Committee (OK) to the World Association FIFA. “Contribution Cultural Program” is in the subject line.
At least two different manuscripts can be found on the fax. In the longer note it is proposed to transfer the “agreed fee” for “HLD” to FIFA and then forward to another account.
“This is my handwriting,” says Niersbach, and it is the first time that he admits what has been held for years. However, he had “no concrete memory” about how the note ended on the fax.
Horst R. Schmidt (left), Dr. Theo Zwanziger (center) and Wolfgang Niersbach at the awarding of the Federal Cross of Merit 2005
Role of Robert Lous-Dreyfus
Behind the abbreviation “HLD” is Mr. Robert Louis-Dreyfus, a French entrepreneur who granted Franz Beckenbauer a loan of over ten million Swiss francs in 2002, which resulted in the equivalent of around 6.7 million euros, the ominous sum that was “with the” Summer fairy tales “are connected as closely as Jürgen Klinsmann and Oliver Neuvilles goal against Poland.
Louis-Dreyfus has nothing to do with the cultural program at the World Cup, especially a gala that never took place.
Why he should officially get a fee in this context is a question that many have already come before the presiding judge Eva-Marie Distler. Wolfgang Niersbach claims that he did not ask himself the question, but in a good faith in the creative solution, how Dreyfus received his money and interest.
Niersbach: Three years DFB President
Niersbach, a trained journalist, then press officer at the German Football Association (DFB) and later Secretary General, was elected President of the Association in March 2012. Three years later he resigned after a legendary press conference. He hadn’t known anything, could not remember, this. But he knew one thing: the World Cup was wonderful, and nobody bought voices to bring it to Germany.
“If you get something from FIFA, you have to give something.” This sentence is also in the files. He is said to come from Franz Beckenbauer, given by Wolfgang Niersbach.
No, says Niersbach, his friend Franz never said that. Maybe he snapped that that someone else told him. But it was a long time ago.
Did Niersbach know about the loan?
Horst R. Schmidt (former treasurer of the DFB and together with Niersbach in the OK of the World Cup), whose procedure was separated in the same process for illness, and Theo Zwanziger (Niersbach’s predecessor as President of the DFB and also in the OK) It was said that Niersbach had known about the Louis-Dreyfus loan to Beckenbauer since 2004 at the latest. Niersbach claims that it was only in 2015, a few weeks before the publication of the news magazine “Der Spiegel”.
Judge Distel and the prosecutor also report considerable doubts. Even twenties, only remaining defendants and Niersbach have been in an intimate rejection for years, must laugh at one point.
Three hours of witnesses – Gain expandable
Wolfgang Niersbach spent almost three hours on the witness stand. A number of questions have been asked, several challenges have been made.
In an old email that is read aloud, Niersbach writes about the “whole truth”. The 19th day of negotiation also ends with the realization that it does not come to light in this procedure.