Franz Beckenbauer, one of the most famous names in world football, and Ángel María Villar Llona, the acting head of Uefa, are the latest figures to have been investigated by Fifa’s ethics committee.
Beckenbauer, who won the World Cup with Germany as both a player and a coach, was a Fifa voter when Russia and Qatar were chosen to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups respectively.
Villar Llona, a vice president on Fifa’s executive committee since 1998, was named interim president of Uefa last week when Michel Platini was suspended from Fifa for 90 days. He also this week replaced the Frenchman temporarily as head of the 2018 World Cup organising committee.
The investigations into both Beckenbauer and Villar Llona have been completed and have been passed to Fifa’s adjudicatory chamber to deliver a verdict.
The pair had not been publicly named before as being under investigation but a change in the ruling yesterday means Fifa’s ethics committee can now reveal details of cases that are ongoing. They had been suspended last year for initially refusing to assist the report led by Michael Garcia, the Fifa prosecutor, into the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments. Fifa confirmed today that this was the reason for placing them under investigation but they are not facing any action over their conduct during the bids.
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Beckenbauer and Villar Llona are two of 11 men to be under investigation by Fifa, which includes Sepp Blatter, the president, Jérôme Valcke, the secretary general, and Platini.
All three were handed provisional 90-day suspensions two weeks ago. The other six officials identified are Worawi Makudi, Jeffrey Webb, Ricardo Teixeira, Amos Adamu, Eugenio Figueredo and Nicolás Leoz.
The investigation into Blatter and Platini focuses on the £1.35 million paid to the Frenchman by Fifa four years ago, which Platini says is work he performed for Blatter between 1998 and 2001.
Beckenbauer headed the organising committee for the 2006 World Cup and was forced to reject allegations on Sunday that a slush fund was set up to buy Germany votes to host the tournament.