Frankfurt court closes WC 2006 case against ex-DFB officials

A Frankfurt court has ended an investigation against three former German Football Federation (DFB) top officials without charges in connection with the 2006 World Cup in Germany, reported dpa.

The Frankfurt prosecution office confirmed to dpa on Monday that the probe against former DFB presidents Theo Zwanziger and Wolfgang Niersbach, plus former general secretaries Horst R Schmidt of the DFB and Urs Linsi of the ruling body FIFA, was closed.

The news comes a year after a trial against the four in Switzerland did also not happen.

Schmidt's defence team said the case was closed due to "a procedural impediment that cannot be removed."

This refers to a law that a person can not be punished or acquitted more than once on the same charge, the German and Swiss authorities both investigating on suspicion of fraud, and the Swiss having closed the case.

The case centres on a payment of €6.7 million ($6.7 million) the DFB paid via FIFA to the late businessman Robert Louis-Dreyfus, declared as part of a World Cup gala which never took place.

World Cup chief organizer Frank Beckenbauer had received a loan of the same sum from Louis-Dreyfus in 2002, with that money ending up on a account by now disgraced former FIFA top official Mohammed bin Hammam. It remains unclear what the money was for.