No action on officials charged in German World Cup tax evasion case 

A German court has decided not to pursue a case against three former senior German football officials on tax evasion charges in connection with the 2006 World Cup.

German prosecutors had charged former German Football Federation (DFB) presidents Wolfgang Niersbach and Theo Zwanziger, and former federation general secretary Horst R. Schmidt.

Frankfurt district court has ruled there are insufficient grounds to proceed with a trial, a court spokesperson told dpa on Monday. Public prosecutors can appeal the decision within a week, he said.

The three former officials had confirmed in May they had been charged with tax evasion in a World Cup payments affair around a sum of 6.7 million euros ($7.3 million) paid by the DFB to football governing body FIFA in 2005.

The payment was declared as a contribution for a cultural event at the World Cup in Germany which never took place, and as an operating expenditure for tax purposes.

Source: dpa