OMNISPORT 

Maltese FA president Norman Darmanin Demajo says Franz Beckenbauer was closely involved in negotiations to secure a friendly between Bayern Munich and Malta prior to the country voting for Germany to host the 2006 World Cup.

Beckenbauer, who is under investigation by the adjudicatory chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, was forced to reject claims made by Der Spiegel magazine earlier this month that a slush fund was set up to buy votes for Germany 2006.

He described a payment sent to FIFA while he was head of his country's bid as a "mistake" but denied it was intended to buy votes.

The Daily Mail has reported that it obtained a document showing that the Maltese FA benefitted from a $250,000 deal to host a friendly against Bayern Munich, struck five weeks before the 2006 World Cup vote in 2000 and with terms that committed all parties to secrecy.

The contract reportedly read: "They shall keep strictly confidential the content of this agreement and not make any disclosure thereof to any third parties. In order to secure this obligation, the parties undertake to limit knowledge of the existence and content of this agreement."

Demajo, who was his organisation's treasurer at the time, said that Beckenbauer helped broker the deal with then-president Josef Mifsud.

"Franz Beckenbauer was directly involved in the negotiations for the Bayern friendly," Demajo said.

"My understanding is that he was in Malta on the day the contract was signed with Mifsud. The Germans have always claimed they did nothing wrong. They may not have put money in envelopes, but the end result was the same. The jigsaw all fits together.

"Four months after the Bayern Munich contract was signed, I was informed that $250,000 had fallen from the sky into our association's bank account.

"As treasurer, I questioned why, and discovered that Mifsud had signed the CWL-Bayern agreement on his own and without anyone's knowledge, something that he was statutorily not allowed to do."

Damajo claims he was forced out of office when he questioned the Bayern deal.

"Give me one logical reason why Beckenbauer would have flown to Malta, had a meeting with Mifsud and then a secret contract is drawn up so that Bayern play here," he added in an interview with the Mail.

"And give me one good reason why Bayern should want to go to Malta, pay all the expenses and give us a quarter of a million and then leave. That's an insult to my intelligence."

When contacted by the newspaper, Mifsud said: "I've been out of football for many years and I am not prepared to make any comment on this, either to you or anyone else."

Beckenbauer's office also declined to comment on the allegations.