JOIN USGerman football legend Franz Beckenbauer is cancelling his trip to the World Cup in Brazil in the light of FIFA suspending him for 90 days over the investigation into the Qatar 2022 World Cup bid, he told the German media on Saturday.
The 68-year-old, who won the World Cup both as a player and as a coach in 1974 and 1990 respectively, told daily newspaper Bild he did not feel he would be made welcome after FIFA announced he had been suspended because he refused to speak to investigators looking into allegations that Qatar paid bribes to secure votes for its 2022 World Cup bid.
“I won’t be going to Brazil,” said Beckenbauer, whose sole title these days is honorary president of Bayern Munich. “I am basing that decision on the fact I will not be welcomed by FIFA.”
Beckenbauer, who was a member of the FIFA executive board in 2010 when the votes were cast to award Russia the 2018 finals and Qatar the 2022 edition, had originally planned to go to Brazil for the semifinals.
Beckenbauer refused to cooperate with Michael Garcia, the former US federal prosecutor who headed an investigation in the votes for the Qatar vote and another that awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia.
The ban was ordered by FIFA’s Ethics Committee adjudicatory chamber because a breach of FIFA’s code of Ethics “appears to have been committed and a decision on the main issue may not be taken early enough. A formal investigation of the Beckenbauer case has now been startedm, said FIFA.