Turns out, Germany cheated to win the right to host the FIFA World Cup in 2006, newspaper Zeit Online reported.
Back in 2000, Germany was granted the right to host the 2006 World Cup ahead of Brazil, Morocco, England and South Africa, beating its final opponent by only one vote.
Shortly before the final vote, German companies and politicians began to actively engage with countries, in which members of the FIFA Executive Committee lived, according to the newspaper.
One of the German automotive companies invested hundreds of millions of euros into a South Korean company as the voting was approaching. Interestingly, the son of the founder of the company was a member of the FIFA Executive Committee.
Although the election of Germany as the 2006 FIFA World Cup host might have been shady, from the judicial point of view the process was quite legal, the German newspaper reported.
Earlier, Constant Omari, the president of the Football Federation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said that representatives of the German Football Association won the right to host the 2006 World Cup after "buying the vote of Oceania."
