The German Football Association has agreed to pause its 24 million euro lawsuit against former president Theo Zwanziger following a recommendation from the presiding judge at the Frankfurt Regional Court, sueddeutsche.de reported. The twelfth civil chamber of the court heard the oral arguments on Tuesday, where both parties agreed to let the proceedings rest while related tax and criminal cases move forward.

Frankfurt Court Hearing and the 24 Million Euro Claim

The German Football Association, known as the DFB, initiated the civil action to secure a judicial declaration that it holds a potential claim of 24 million euros against the 81-year-old Zwanziger in connection with the 2006 World Cup scandal. However, the actual financial damage suffered by the governing body depends entirely on the outcome of a separate proceeding at the Tax Court in Kassel, sueddeutsche.de reported. In that tax court case, the DFB is challenging the revocation of its non-profit status for the 2006 fiscal year, a decision that forced the association to pay more than 20 million euros in back taxes.

The core of the financial dispute stems from an April 2005 payment of 6.7 million euros. The association internally and on its tax declarations classified the sum as a contribution toward a World Cup gala, though the money actually went toward repaying a loan owed to the late tournament chief Franz Beckenbauer, sueddeutsche.de reported. Should the tax court uphold the revocation of the DFB’s non-profit status, the governing body intends to recover those funds from the officials who were in charge at the time.

Next Steps in the Civil and Tax Proceedings

During Tuesday’s hearing before the Frankfurt Regional Court, the parties agreed to work out a solution regarding how Zwanziger will be involved in drafting the legal documents for the ongoing tax court case in Kassel, sueddeutsche.de reported. If either side rejects this cooperative arrangement, the civil chamber will resume its hearings in February. Yet the tax court proceedings themselves remain frozen pending the resolution of a third legal track involving the 2006 tournament.

That third track involves criminal proceedings over tax evasion. In June 2025, the Frankfurt Regional Court convicted the DFB of tax evasion and issued a 130,000 euro fine, a verdict the association has appealed to the Federal Court of Justice, where the case remains under review, sueddeutsche.de reported.

Statute of Limitations and Former Officials

Zwanziger originally stood trial in the criminal proceedings alongside two other former DFB officials: 75-year-old Wolfgang Niersbach and 84-year-old Horst R. Schmidt, sueddeutsche.de reported. The court ultimately stayed the proceedings against all three men upon the payment of financial penalties, though it assigned different levels of responsibility. Zwanziger paid a 10,000 euro penalty, Niersbach paid 25,000 euros, and Schmidt paid 65,000 euros.

The DFB is pursuing Zwanziger alone because he, unlike Niersbach and Schmidt, did not sign a waiver of the statute of limitations. Without that waiver, any legal claims the association holds against Zwanziger risked expiring, leaving the DFB with no other procedural option to protect its financial interests, sueddeutsche.de reported.