German football federation chief Wolfgang Niersbach said Monday he was stepping down, taking "political responsibility" for graft claims related to the 2006 World Cup but admitting no personal guilt. "I was there from the first day of the bid for the 2006 FIFA World Cup all the way to the final film of the 'summer fairytale' and have worked throughout all the years ... in a clean, reliable and correct manner," he said.
"In my assigned areas of marketing, media, accreditations and event organisation, I can say with a clear conscience that I am personally beyond reproach," he added. "It's all the more depressing and painful for me to be confronted, nine years later, with transactions that I was not involved in and which leave many questions open for me," said Niersbach.
Vice-presidents Reinhard Rauball and Rainer Koch are taking over as co-chiefs of the German football federation DFB. German football has been turned upside down by the storm unleashed by a report in magazine Spiegel last month which alleged that a 6.7-million-euro ($7.2-million) payment made by the DFB to FIFA was used to buy votes in order to secure the hosting of the 2006 World Cup. The scandal took a dramatic twist last week with police carrying out raids at DFB headquarters and prosecutors revealing that three men - including the DFB chief - were being investigated for serious tax fraud surrounding the FIFA payment.
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