Honorary President Uli Hoeneß of FC Bayern has to testify in court. It is about statements he made during a TV appearance.
Uli Hoeneß has been summoned as a witness in the so-called summer fairytale trial at the Frankfurt/Main Regional Court. Judge Eva-Marie Distler said this at the start of the second day of the trial on Thursday. Hoeneß must appear as a witness on 15 April.
The reason for this are statements made by Hoeneß in 2020 and 2021. In an appearance on Sport1’s Doppelpass programme and a podcast, the Bayern patriarch hinted that he knew why the dubious payments of millions were made in connection with the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
He knew „very definitely that the money was not used to buy votes“, Hoeneß said on Sport1. When asked, however, he said: „I think I’m the wrong man to explain that to you.“
Judge Distler said: „If you get involved so prominently, you might also have to explain it in court.“
Zwanziger: „I’ll listen to Hoeneß in peace and quiet“
Hoeneß is due to appear on the fourth day of the trial. The accused former DFB president Theo Zwanziger commented: „I’ll listen to Hoeneß calmly.“
Zwanziger then attacked the judicial authorities: „But in the end, we will hear the result that there was no tax evasion in 2006 – let alone tax evasion.“
Zwanziger also smugly added that he would soon propose Lothar Matthäus as a witness.
In addition to Zwanziger, the other accused former DFB top officials must also testify. Zwanziger, former DFB boss Wolfgang Niersbach and long-time General Secretary Horst R. Schmidt are accused of „evasion or aiding and abetting the evasion of corporation tax, solidarity surcharge, trade tax and value added tax for 2006 amounting to over 13.7 million euros in favour of the DFB“.
Niersbach, Zwanziger and Schmidt reject the accusations. The investigations into the opaque money flows surrounding the 2006 World Cup have been dragging on for several years. The current trial is about 6.7 million euros that were declared as operating expenses for a gala.
