Britain's anti-fraud organization is probing potential money-laundering offenses related to the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, its director told British lawmakers Tuesday. "There are outstanding matters which touch upon money-laundering," David Green from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) told the British government's Culture, Media and Sport select committee. "There are a number of matters we are still looking at and digging into." The SFO cannot pursue scandal-plagued world governing body FIFA under bribery laws, but Green said that it would act if money-laundering was found to have passed through the United Kingdom. Green said that an alleged £270,000 ($414,100) payment made by Australia's unsuccessful bid for the 2022 World Cup to disgraced former FIFA vice president Jack Warner may have passed through London. "I cannot confirm the assertion that money went through London," he said. "It certainly started off in Sydney and appears to have ended up in Trinidad. "It could be money-laundering, yes. Whether the money came through London is important." Green added: "We are still examining issues around possible money laundering and I won't be able to go into detail as new information has come to us quite recently." Swiss authorities are currently investigating the joint-bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, which were awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively. Meanwhile, FIFA and the German Football Federation (DFB) are looking into claims that Germany's 2006 World Cup bid committee used a ‘slush fund' to buy votes. ‘Scandal could hit future bids' Germany's current cash-for-votes scandal, concerning the awarding of the 2006 World Cup, could hurt the nation's hopes of hosting future sporting events, says the chair of the Bundestag's sports committee. The German Football Association (DFB) is currently under investigation by FIFA over an unexplained payment of 6.7 million euros ($7.4 million) made a decade ago by the 2006 World Cup organizing committee to football's governing body. Hamburg is an official candidate to host the 2024 Olympic Games and the DFB is planning to bid to host the European football championships the same year. But senior politician Dagmar Freitag, who heads the Bundestag's sports committee — which has requested a hearing with DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach — says there could be repercussions from the current scandal. The DFB has commissioned renowned law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to audit the 2006 World Cup bid to get to the bottom of the scandal. German football legend Franz Beckenbauer admitted Monday making a "mistake" in the bidding process to host the 2006 World Cup but denied that votes were bought. The 70-year-old said the bid committee accepted a proposition that "should have been rejected" and said he took "full responsibility for this mistake," although he added in a written statement that "no voters were bought."
