Beckenbauer and Villar Llona face rulings in probes

File photo of former FIFA executive committee member and former Bayern Munich president Franz Beckenbauer.DPA/Berlin A FIFA ethics committee investigation against German icon Franz Beckenbauer has been completed and the case is passed on to its adjudicatory chamber for a ruling, the ethics committee said yesterday. A statement said that Spanish FIFA vice-president Angel Maria Villar Llona also faces charges of breaching the code of ethics. “Proceedings relating to the two officials Ángel María Villar Llona and Franz Beckenbauer have already been passed on to the adjudicatory chamber,” the statement said. The statement suggests that a final ruling could come in the near future. Beckenbauer, who captained and coached Germany to the World Cup title and was chief organizer of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, was last year suspended by FIFA for several weeks over not responding to questions from the ethics committee in connection with a probe on the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Beckenbauer was a voting FIFA executive when the tournament hosts were elected in 2010. Villar Llona is also the UEFA senior vice-president and led an emergency meeting of the European body in place of Michel Platini, who was absent due to a FIFA suspension. Yesterday’s announcement was the first official confirmation of the probes against the two. It was made possible after the executive committee decided the previous day to allow the ethics committee to publish reports and release names from ongoing investigations before a verdict has been reached. The ethics committee also said it will do its best to come to a final decision in its probe against FIFA president Joseph Blatter and Platini before the end of their provisional 90-day suspension. The probe centres on a “disloyal payment” of 2 million Swiss francs from Blatter to Platini in 2011 from which no written contract exists. Platini plans to run for the FIFA presidency. The suspension ends January 6, but can be extended for 45 days until February 20. The new president is elected February 26. “The investigatory chamber will do everything in its power to ensure that a decision can be taken by the adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee, chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert, within the 90-day suspension period of the two football officials,” the statement said. FIFA’s audit and compliance committee chairman Domenico Scala suggested in an interview with the Financial Times that the case could constitute “falsification of the accounts.” “The key points are a conflict of interest and the non-accrual of the 2 million Swiss francs in FIFA’s accounts. Both parties admit that there was an agreement about the 2 million Swiss francs, but that amount was never recoded in FIFA’s accounts until the payment occurred,” Scala said. “That is a serious omission, and both parties were members of FIFA’s executive committee and knowingly approved each year financial statements which were incorrect by 2 million Swiss francs.” The ethics committee also confirmed an ongoing probe against FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke; and against among others Worawi Makudi, Jeffrey Webb, Ricardo Teixeira, Amos Adamu, Eugenio Figueredo and Nicolas Leoz, officials implicated in an American probe.