FIFA rejects appeal by banned top German official

FIFA said Friday its appeal committee had rejected a bid by Wolfgang Niersbach, a former German Football Association president, to overturn his one-year ban from football over the 2006 World Cup scandal.

Niersbach was banned in July over misconduct surrounding Germany’s successful 2006 World Cup bid for failing to report findings about possible unethical conduct and conflicts of interest during the bidding process.

“The FIFA Appeal Committee, chaired by Larry Mussenden (Bermuda), has rejected the appeal lodged by Wolfgang Niersbach and confirmed the decision taken by the adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee,” a FIFA statement said.

Switzerland’s attorney general’s office last year opened an investigation last year into fraud and money laundering allegations against four members of the 2006 World Cup organising committee, including Niersbach and German great Franz Beckenbauer.

Niersbach was the vice-president of the 2006 World Cup organising committee and was in charge of media and marketing.

He previously “acknowledged and regretted” his mistakes, but had described the punishment as “inappropriate and excessive”.