Beckenbauer among 5 to come under FIFA probe

GENEVA — Retired German great Franz Beckenbauer is one of five officials at football’s world governing body FIFA being investigated in the corruption probe into the bidding contests for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because the FIFA probe is confidential, a person familiar with the cases confirmed the names on Thursday to The Associated Press after the five were identified in European media reports.

The others are Chile’s Harold Mayne-Nicholls, and FIFA executive board members Angel Maria Villar of Spain, Belgium’s Michel D’Hooghe, Worawi Makudi of Thailand.

Beckenbauer, who won the World Cup in 1974 as captain of the former West Germany, and again in 1990 as manager, was a FIFA voter when the board chose Russia to host the 2018 World Cup and Qatar secured the 2022 tournament. He was provisionally suspended during the World Cup in June for initially refusing to help Garcia’s probe.

Villar and Worawi risk losing their FIFA seats within months as even provisional suspensions from all football duty can block them standing in scheduled confederation elections.

Mayne-Nicholls inspected the bids for FIFA ahead of the December 2010 polls, and reportedly sought placements for family members at Qatar’s influential Aspire youth academy.

Villar was a leader of the Spain-Portugal bid that was among four candidates in the 2018 contest. It lost despite a widely reported voting pact with Qatar, in breach of FIFA rules to prevent collusion.

Villar was also previously identified in March as trying to remove Garcia from the investigation.

D’Hooghe, the longest tenured board member with 26 years’ service, previously acknowledged accepting a painting from a Russian former FIFA colleague during the campaign, but insisted he voted only for his native Netherlands-Belgium bid in the 2018 contest.

Worawi is a longtime ally of Mohamed bin Hammam, the now-disgraced Qatari who was a key FIFA power broker. The Thai was alleged in Britain’s Parliament to have sought favours from England’s failed 2018 bid.

The probe was revived after Garcia appealed against Eckert’s summary of the 430-page report, which absolved Russia and Qatar of wrongdoing. FIFA president Sepp Blatter has backed Eckert’s view that the full report cannot be disclosed, citing privacy rights to protect suspects and witnesses. But Garcia and UEFA president Michel Platini want “appropriate publication” with some redactions.

Last week, Garcia and Eckert agreed that FIFA’s audit committee chief Domenico Scala would study the report and decide if there should be a partial or full disclosure of it. FIFA has also filed a criminal complaint to Swiss federal prosecutors against unnamed individuals cited in Garcia’s report.

The FIFA board, likely including the implicated trio, meets Dec 18-19 in Marrakech, Morocco, and could get the Garcia dossier to review. AP