Before FIFA issued a ban on German football icon Franz Beckenbauer for his non-cooperation to the ongoing investigation on Qatar's bid for the 2022 World Cup, Der Kaiser, as he is known in his homeland, has claimed confusion about the noise surrounding the Gulf nation's winning bid, Gulf Times said.
Citing an interview he did for Germany's Bild newspaper, he said, "To be honest, I don't understand the whole stir. I have often said that I am the wrong partner to talk to about corruption. There is still a vote secrecy and this applies to me too."
He also told the paper that he has absolutely nothing to hide about the Qatar bid, and shot down insinuations about his travel to Qatar prior to the controversial voting in December 2010.
Gulf Times said Beckenbauer admitted travelling to Qatar in 2010 as he was then invited by former FIFA official Mohamed bin Hammam. He fell short of disclosing of whether the visit was a personal one or of a business matter. In 2011, Der Kaiser returned to the Gulf nation to serve as an adviser to a Hamburg-based company. Beckenbauer had taken part in choosing which countries should play host to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments as a FIFA executive at that time, the online news site said.
Answering questions about reports by Britain's Daily Telegraph and Germany's Die Welt on his refusal to answer FIFA chief investigator Michael Garcia about the possible wrongdoing that were said to have happened in relation to the selection of the two countries as hosts of the tournaments, Beckenbauer claimed to Sportmail's Jeff Powell earlier this month that it was all a miscommunication.
Confirming that he did had contact with the commission led by Garcia on the Qatar probe, he added, "They sent me a questionnaire but it was in English and it contained some complex legal issues. So I asked them to re-send it to me in German. I have heard nothing from them since. I wasn't comfortable about responding to such technical questions in anything but German."
