German football has been drawn into the ever widening Fifa corruption crisis after it was alleged that the former Adidas chief executive Robert Louis-Dreyfus set up a 10.3m Swiss francs (€6.7m) slush fund to buy votes and secure the right to stage the 2006 World Cup.

Der Spiegel said that the money was likely to have been used to secure the votes of four members of the Fifa executive committee before the hugely controversial vote in 2000, in which Germany triumphed by 12 votes to 11 over South Africa. Louis-Dreyfus, a former majority shareholder in the French club Marseille, who died in 2009, is claimed to have borrowed the money and lent it to the bidding committee.

The executive is said to have called in the loan a year and a half before the World Cup and Der Spiegel alleges that the money was returned to him via Fifa.

The German World Cup organising committee made a €6.7m contribution for a gala opening ceremony at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium which was later cancelled. “The money had been paid into a Fifa bank account in Geneva. From there, Fifa allegedly promptly transferred the money to a Zurich account belonging to Louis-Dreyfus,” Spiegel reported.

Spiegel said that both Franz Beckenbauer, who headed the bidding committee, and Wolfgang Niersbach, the current president of the German football federation (DFB), as well as other high-ranking football officials were aware of the slush fund by 2005 at the latest. Neither Beckenbauer or Niersbach, who could be the next Uefa president, responded to the magazine’s request for comment.

The German FA has denied wrongdoing and said a €6.7m payment by the organising committee of the 2006 World Cup to Fifa was not connected to the awarding of the right to stage the tournament.

Before the story broke, the DFB announced on Friday that it had set up its own investigation into the payment. It said its inquiry had not found any evidence of wrongdoing, adding that it is also investigating whether it has any right to claim that money back, if it is proven that it was not used for its stated purpose.

“The DFB has not found even the slightest indications of irregularities during our investigation,” it said. “At the same time, there have been no indications at all of votes being bought from delegates as part of the bidding process. “The payment [of €6.7m to Fifa in 2005] was in no way connected with obtaining the [World Cup] five years earlier.

“These suggestions led to the DFB presidency ordering an internal investigation this summer with the scope of finding an explanation.

“This analysis, which has seen external law advisors consulted, also examined whether the DFB has any right to reclamation. The results are not yet known as the investigation, which has started, is still under way.”

Fifa said that the allegations would be considered as part of an ongoing internal probe and it would continue to cooperate with the ongoing US and Swiss criminal investigations. “These are very serious allegations. They will be reviewed as part of the independent internal investigation currently being conducted by Fifa under the direction of its legal director with the assistance of outside counsel,” said a spokeswoman.