GENEVA, March 22. /TASS/. FIFA’s investigatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee opened proceedings into Germany’s bid for 2006 World Cup and six officials from the German Football Association (DFB), FIFA said in its statement on Tuesday.

"After examining the Freshfields report commissioned by the German Football Association (DFB), the investigatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee has decided to open formal proceedings against the following individuals in the context of the 2006 FIFA World Cup host selection and its associated funding," the statement said.

The DFB officials mentioned in the FIFA statement are:

1. Wolfgang Niersbach, former president of the DFB, vice-president of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Local Organising Committee (LOC) and current member of the FIFA and UEFA Executive Committees
2. Helmut Sandrock, former secretary general of the DFB and tournament director of the LOC
3. Franz Beckenbauer, former vice-president of the DFB, president of the LOC and former member of the FIFA Executive Committee
4. Theo Zwanziger, former president of the DFB, vice-president of the LOC and former member of the FIFA and UEFA Executive Committees
5. Horst R. Schmidt, former secretary general of the DFB and vice-president of the LOC
6. Stefan Hans, former chief financial officer of the DFB and chief financial officer of the LOC

Last Wednesday, FIFA published documents in which it officially acknowledged facts of bribery during the election of the host countries for the 1998 and 2010 World Cups, held in France and South Africa respectively.

The facts of bribery were stated by the world’s governing body of football in its 21-page letter it sent to the United States authorities on Wednesday as part of the major corruption case involving FIFA officials.

FIFA announced that it submitted documents with the authorities of the United States in an effort to reclaim tens of millions of dollars, illegally pocketed by 41 organization’s corrupt executives and other football officials.

A chain of corruption scandals rocked FIFA throughout last year. Everything flared up with an unprecedented scandal on the morning of May 27, 2015, one day before the 65th FIFA Congress in Zurich, where seven of the organization’s high-ranking officials were arrested in Switzerland on bribery, money laundering and corruption charges. More arrests on corruption charges followed among FIFA officials in December.