Former German Football Association (DFB) president Wolfgang Niersbach will appeal against a one-year ban by world soccer’s governing body FIFA, he said yesterday.
FIFA’s Ethics Committee banned Niersbach on Monday for failing to report potential misconduct surrounding the award of the 2006 soccer World Cup to Germany.
“After consulting my lawyers I will file an appeal, even just to be able to get a written explanation for this verdict,” Niersbach told Germany’s Bild newspaper.
“I can only repeat that this verdict is over the top and I owe it to myself to challenge it.”
Niersbach, who sat on the FIFA Council and is a member of the executive committee of UEFA, resigned as DFB president in November after he was unable to explain a €6.7 million payment from the German World Cup organisers to FIFA.
A report in May from the investigatory chamber of FIFA’s ethics committee – an independent body – found Niersbach had violated its ethics code and recommended he be banned for two years from all football-related activity and fined.
The German, who has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing, said at the time he disagreed with the severity of the recommendations.
Niersbach is also under investigation by Frankfurt prosecutors for suspected tax evasion over the payment to FIFA.