‘MFA, Beckenbauer signed $250k contract before World Cup vote’
An investigation by The Mail on Sunday says former MFA President Joe Mifsud and head of Germany’s 2006 organising committee Franz Beckenbauer signed secret $250,000 contract before crucial vote on Germany’s world cup bid.
A “secret” contract between former MFA President Joe Mifsud and Franz Beckenbauer, the head of Germany's 2006 World Cup organising committee, saw the Maltese FA earn $250,000 five weeks before a crucial vote on the host of the 2006 World Cup, an investigation by The Mail on Sunday has claimed.
The investigation claims to have seen a “secret document” from 2000 which saw the MFA earn $250,000 in exchange for the Maltese national team to face German football giants Bayern Munich in a friendly.
The investigation said that the deal was struck after a secret meeting was held between Franz Beckenbauer and former MFA President Joe Mifsud at the latter’s private residence. At the time, Beckenbauer was the president of Bayern Munich as well as the head of Germany’s 2006 organising committee.
In its report, the newspaper also said that five weeks after the deal was struck in June 2000, Malta voted for Germany to host the 2006 tournament, and that the contract included a clause stating that the existence of the contract should remain a secret.
Germany’s World Cup bid won 12-11 in the final round against South Africa, while the friendly between the Maltese national team and Bayern Munich was eventually played in 2001.
The investigation suggests that Beckenbauer was “complicit in influencing in the votes of FIFA’s executive committee in 2000, in a bid process for the 2006 tournament.”
Similarly, it said that Beckenbauer might have had “a central role in endorsing a financial inducement to Malta just weeks before that country voted for Germany to stage the 2006 World Cup.”
Speaking to the newspaper, current MFA president Norman Darmanin Demajo, who at the time of the alleged contract was the Association’s treasurer, questioned the role of Beckenbauer in setting up a friendly between Malta and Bayern Munich.
“Franz Beckenbauer was directly involved in the negotiations for the Bayern friendly,” Darmanin Demajo said.
“My understanding is that he was in Malta on the day the contract was signed with Mifsud. The Germans have always claimed they did nothing wrong. They may not have put money in envelopes, but the end result was the same. The jigsaw all fits together,” the MFA President was quoted as saying by The Mail on Sunday.
The newspaper said that according to the contract, "a broadcasting firm called CWL, owned by German media firm Kirch, would pay $250,000 to the Malta FA for rights to the friendly. Kirch had the rights to the 2006 World Cup and would earn handsomely from an event in Germany."
Darmanin Demajo – who in 2010 unseated Joe Mifsud as MFA president – said that four months after the Bayern Munich contract was signed, he was informed “$250,000 had fallen from the sky into [our] association’s bank account.”
“As treasurer, I questioned why, and discovered that Mifsud had signed the CWL-Bayern agreement on his own and without anyone's knowledge, something that he was statutorily not allowed to do.”
The newspaper said that when Darmanin Demajo raised questions about the secret deal, he was forced out of office.
“Give me one logical reason why Beckenbauer would have flown to Malta, had a meeting with Mifsud and then a secret contract is drawn up so that Bayern play here,” said Demajo last night.
And give me one good reason why Bayern should want to go to Malta, pay all the expenses and give us a quarter of a million and then leave. That's an insult to my intelligence.”
The newspaper also said that when contacted, former MFA President Joe Mifsud “refused to talk about the matter.”
