DFB crisis: timeline

July 25: Former DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach is handed a one-year ban from all football activity by the FIFA Ethics Committee. The ban was imposed after Niersbach "failed to report findings about possible misconduct concerning the awarding of the 2006 FIFA World Cup," a statement from the Committee read. Niersbach said he would consider taking legal action against the ban.

March 22: FIFA's Ethics Committee opens formal proceedings against those involved with the 2006 World Cup hosting bid, including Wolfgang Niersbach.

March 6: In an interview with "Welt on Sunday" Wolfgang Niersbach, says "all involved with the World Cup 2006 project behaved absolutely clean". He also stated that he was not thinking about resigning from his posts with FIFA or UEFA.

March 5: In an interview with "Bild on Sunday" Franz Beckenbauer once again denied buying votes for the World Cup draw. "It was about a kind of security in order to get the financial grant from FIFA," Beckenbauer said.

March 4: Freshfields report released - and there is no evidence that Germany bought votes to host the 2006 World Cup. As a result of files and documents not being available, the report also stated there was no evidence that the allegations weren't true. Sepp Blatter refused to cooperate, it was confirmed.

March 3: Date set for new DFB president after the Extraordinary Congress on April 15. Reinhard Grindel has the unanimous backing of the German FA's representatives.

February 26: General Secretary Helmut Sandrock, a former member of the Organizing Committee, resigns from his post.

February 5: DFB confirms it has launched legal proceedings into Franz Beckenbauer and FIFA.

January 28: DFB confirm March 4 as the date the Freshfields report would be publicly revealed.

January 22, 2016: A report from the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper claims the FBI were looking into the 2006 scandal.

December 11: Sepp Blatter describes Beckenbauer's version of events as 'absurd'. The German claimed the DFB's payment was in order to gain extra funding. But Blatter dismissed that idea: "To pay money to receive money? No, you don't have anything like that at FIFA."

November 20: In an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung, Beckenbauer strongly denies vote-buying. "Do you know how many things I signed in those days?," he said.

November 17: Reinhard Grindel is put forward as the main candidate to become DFB president by the 21 regional football associations.

November 11: Jack Warner denies "any agreement" with Beckenbauer or DFB in relation to the 2006 World Cup hosting rights. Beckenbauer declines to comment on bribery allegations.

November 10: DFB vice-presidents Rainer Koch and Reinhard Rauball confirm the existence of a contractual agreement between Franz Beckenbauer and former CONCACAF president Jack Warner. The agreement specified "various services" the DFB would provide Warner and CONCACAF in exchange for support in hosting the 2006 World Cup.

November 9: Following the DFB board meeting, President Wolfgang Niersbach announces that he is stepping down to take "political responsibility" for the affair.

November 6: The DFB announces it has called an extraordinary meeting of its board for the following Monday.

November 3: Tax investigators raid the DFB headquarters in Frankfurt, as well as, the homes of Wolfgang Niersbach, Theo Zwanziger and general secretary Horst Schmidt.

November 2: Germany's Federal Chancellery confirms it will go through the World Cup 2006 records.

October 27: Former national team legend Günter Netzer threatens Zwanziger with a lawsuit over allegations of buying votes from Asian officials ahead of the 2006 World Cup vote. Netzer denied this and gave the former DFB president a deadline until 30 October to retract his claims - a date that wasn't met by Zwanziger.

October 26: Franz Beckenbauer, former president of the Organizing Committee, breaks his silence and called the deal with FIFA an error: "For this mistake, I was responsible as president of the Organizing Committee."´

October 23: Former DFB president Theo Zwanziger accused Niersbach of lying. Zwanziger says there definitely was a slush fund.

October 22: Niersbach attends a press conference in Frankfurt, but leaves more questions than answers. There was no slush fund, but to Niersbach's knowledge, the 6.7 million was paid to FIFA in order to obtain additional funding. FIFA denied that version of events.

October 19: "One must ask the question how these 6.7 million euros were used," admitted Niersbach, but he strongly denied accusations of vote-buying as Frankfurt prosecutors and FIFA began looking into the allegation.

October 18: Beckenbauer denies the allegations: "I haven't sent money to anyone to acquite votes for the award of the 2006 World Cup to Germany."

October 17: The DFB denies the reports: "I can assure you that there have been no slush funds at the DFB," Niersbach told the DFB website.

October 16: German news magazine "Der Spiegel" reports that the 2006 World Cup was bought. According to the "Spiegel" report, the late CEO of German sports equipment company Adidas, Robert Louis Dreyfus, loaned the committee in charge of Germany's bid to host the 2006 World Cup the funds to pay bribes to FIFA officials to help land the tournament.