We only played bank: Blatter tells German court

Former FIFA president Joseph S Blatter has told a German court that the world governing body only provided a bank service in connection with dubious payments around the 2006 World Cup, reported dpa.

"We did a banking transaction and didn't ask why," Blatter told the Frankfurt court via a video link as a witness from his Swiss home country.

"We only played bank," he said, speaking of "a service."

Blatter, 89, who presided over FIFA 1998-2016 was referring to the 10 million Swiss francs ($11 million) and €6.7 million ($7 million) which are at the centre of the trial on charges of tax evasion against the German Football Federation (DFB).

The €6.7 million payment was declared as part of a planned World Cup gala event which was scrapped for financial reasons in early 2006, a view Blatter shared.

The DFB put the sum down as operating expenses in 2006 which led to the trial because the public prosecutor's office has named this inadmissible.

Prosecutors say that the DFB evaded taxes totalling more than €13 million this way.

Former DFB president Theo Zwanziger, the only remaining defendant in the proceedings, strictly rejects this accusation.

The DFB payment was made in 2005 to FIFA which directed it on to account of French businessman Robert Louis-Dreyfus.

Louis-Dreyfus had sent a loan of 10 million Swiss francs to 2006 World Cup organizer Franz Beckenbauer. The sum then arrived in an account of now disgraced FIFA top official Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar - for reasons not known.

Beckenbauer's long time confidant Fedor Radman told the court last week the sum had been a security for a 250 million Swiss francs grant from FIFA to the German World Cup. Blatter spoke of "a loan" on Thursday.