Berlin, June 6 (IANS) Germany sent Saudia Arabia a shipment of rocket-propelled grenades in exchange for support of their bid to host the 2006 football World Cup, a report in the German media has claimed.
The allegations are the latest revelations in the ever-increasing FIFA scandal, which began with the arrests of seven top Fifa officials in Zurich, Switzerland, as part of a US-led investigation.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter stepped down in the wake of the scandal just four days after he was re-elected to serve his fifth term.
According to reports by the Die Zeit newspaper on Friday, the then German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder’s government allegedly complied with a request from the German Football Association to send Saudi Arabia arms, in an attempt to get the Gulf country’s vote. Germany won the hosting rights by a narrow margin beating Morocco, reports independent.co.uk.
More skeletons tumbled out of the FIFA corruption scandal on Friday, as it emerged that the world football’s governing body had paid the Irish Football Association (FAI) 5million Euros as a compensation after an controversial hand ball decision denied Ireland qualification in the 2010 World Cup.