Fifa corruption: Report "cannot rule out" 2006 World Cup votes being bought

A lack of evidence - some of which may have been mislaid or destroyed - meant the investigation was inconclusive

Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro lifts the World Cup in 2006 (Getty Images)

A report has concluded that it cannot rule out the possibility that a payment of 6.7million from the German federation to world governing body FIFA in April 2005 was used to buy votes for the 2006 World Cup.

International law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, published a 380-page report detailing the movement of funds from account to account.

However, a lack of evidence - some of which appeared to have been mislaid or destroyed - meant the investigation was ultimately inconclusive.

"We cannot prove that votes were bought, but we cannot rule this out either," said the report.

The Freshfields report did discover, however, that the sum ended up in an account in Qatar, although no reason could be found for why it finished in an account owned by the former FIFA executive committee member Mohamed bin Hammam. The Qatari was banned for life from all football-related activity in 2011 after being found guilty of bribery in relation to that year's FIFA presidential election.

Former DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach resigned late last year as the allegations were made public.

The report revealed how Niersbach had been aware of the flow of the money before it became public knowledge.

More to follow...

PA