Slush fund involved: German FA ex-chief
BERLIN • Former German football chief Theo Zwanziger yesterday said he was certain that there was a slush fund involved in the bidding process for the 2006 World Cup, as questions mounted over a murky €6.7 million (S$10.4 million) payment to Fifa.
German football was plunged into a crisis over claims in Der Spiegel last week that the 2006 World Cup bidding committee had accepted a loan from former adidas chief Robert Louis-Dreyfus.
Current German football chief Wolfgang Niersbach on Thursday rejected claims that the alleged fund was used to buy the votes of four Asian members of Fifa's executive committee.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
DPMM open 6-point lead over Balestier
Brunei DPMM lead the S-League football standings by six points over Balestier Khalsa with four games left, after beating Harimau Muda B 2-0 in Malacca last night.
Tampines Rovers are three points behind the Tigers on 37 but the Stags have played only 21 games, two fewer than the top two.
The match at Jalan Besar between the bottom two teams, Geylang and Hougang, was postponed because of worsening haze conditions.
Sepak takraw titles for Thai men, women
NAKHON PATHOM • Hosts Thailand swept both titles at sepak takraw's Istaf Super Series Finals.
Their men beat Malaysia 2-0, while their women overcame Myanmar by the same score.
Champagne in fray for Fifa presidency
LAUSANNE • Former French diplomat and ex-Fifa deputy general secretary Jerome Champagne, 57, yesterday entered the race to succeed Sepp Blatter as president of football's scandal-hit governing body.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
12-year-old paddler loses to No. 1 Ma
WARSAW • Precocious 12-year-old Japanese paddler Tomokazu Harimoto lost 0-4 to China's world No. 1, Olympic and world champion Ma Long, in the first round of the Polish Open yesterday.
He is the youngest player to qualify for the main draw of an International Table Tennis Federation world tour event.
REUTERS
