The public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt/Main has closed the investigation into the tax affair against Reinhard Grindel.The former president of the German Football Association (DFB) paid a fine, although he once again emphasized his innocence.As the "kicker" reports, the 60-year-old pays a "five-digit money requirement" just like the former Secretary General Friedrich Curtius.Curtius spoke of procedural economic reasons.Grindel explained: "I agreed solely for family and professional reasons, to prevent long-term damage to my integrity."All physical evidence and witness statements have shown that he is innocent.According to his own statement, the native of Hamburg "always relied on the advice of the financial experts and advisors of the DFB" when it came to tax classification.In October 2020 there was a major raid involving 200 officials in the Frankfurt association headquarters of the DFB.In addition, in particularly serious cases, a total of six high-ranking DFB officials were searched on suspicion of evading corporate and trade taxes for the benefit of others.According to the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office, the DFB did not properly declare income from perimeter advertising at national team games in 2014 and 2015 in the amount of 4.7 million euros.Grindel was treasurer at the time.At the time of the raid, the DFB had already paid the disputed taxes.The investigations against Curtius' predecessor Helmut Sandrock had already been stopped in May 2021, as well as against Reinhard Rauball, who as DFL supervisory board chairman was also DFB vice.In October 2021, the then DFB Vice Rainer Koch was hired.The only thing left is Stephan Osnabrügge, who succeeded Grindel as treasurer at the DFB.According to "kicker", Osnabrugge, who works as a lawyer, did not agree to an offer to hire him for a fee because he was convinced that he had not violated any tax obligations.However, the public prosecutor's office did not want to comment specifically on this case.Osnabrugge had already drawn attention to itself with pithy words in the past.He called the accusation that the DFB was running a tax-saving model "blatant nonsense".And before retiring from the DFB, he said: "I want my life back."The Lower Saxony found it difficult to fight against the strong promoted team, who scored the win in injury time.more