Former DFB President Niersbach to appeal FIFA ban
July 27, 2016
Former DFB (German FA) President Wolfgang Niersbach announced the move in a statement to Germany's mass-circulation "Bild" newspaper on Wednesday.
"After consulting with my lawyers, I will lodge an appeal, if only to obtain the written reasons for the judgment," he said.
"I can only repeat that I consider the judgment to be excessive, and I therefore feel obliged to act against it."
On Monday, FIFA's Ethics Committee announced that it had imposed the one-year ban from all football-related activities on Niersbach after its "adjudicatory chamber found Niersbach failed to report findings about possible misconduct concerning the awarding of the 2006 World Cup."
Niersbach resigned as DFB president last November, saying he was taking political responsibility for the affair, which revolves around a payment made by Germany's 2006 World Cup organizing committee of 6.7 million euros (7.4 million dollars) to FIFA.
Despite stepping down as DFB president, Niersbach remained a member of the UEFA Executive Committee and was named to the FIFA Council, which was created at the Extraordinary FIFA Congress in February. His name has since been removed from the list of Council members on FIFA's website.
pfd/apc (dpa, SID)