In his prime, German legend Franz Beckenbauer was considered one of the finest players ever to grace a football field. A sweeper, he was a dominant figure on the field of play and stood head and shoulders above his peers because of his elegance and leadership qualities that shone through in every match.The man had skill, vision and the ability to pass the ball in a crowded defence, either with the instep or by using the scuffing tactic to direct the ball to a teammate, a feat mere mortals would have struggled to execute. Little wonder he came to be known as Der Kaiser!He remains one of the few individuals to have won the World Cup both as a player and coach.He has won numerous global awards for his contribution to the Beautiful Game. At one stage, he was not only president of the German Football Federation but also went on to become chairman of the country's 2006 Fifa World bid committee, and later of the organising committee.This week, under pressure from investigators probing the Fifa corruption scandal, Beckenbauer partially admitted that Germany "might" have bought votes to edge out South Africa in that highly contentious 2006 World Cup bid, when Charles Dempsey abstained from voting.Beckenbauer admitted to the investigators that he made a "mistake" in the bidding process that resulted in Germany beating South Africa 12-11 to secure the rights to host the 2006 World Cup.A German magazine, Der Spiegel, has accused the German bid committee of using a slush fund to buy votes.We respect Beckenbauer but Der Kaiser needs to come clean and stop insulting our intelligence. It does not help his image to be economical with the truth and only partially admit that in "order to get a subsidy from Fifa", they went ahead with the proposal from the Fifa finance committee to do what in today's terms should have been rejected.His handing of à6.7-million in 2000 to people supposed to decide which country should host the next World Cup was totally wrong. Period. Accepting responsibility is very noble of him but trying to put a spin on the "mistake" is stretching it a bit far.The same applies to former French dribbling wizard Michel Platini, who is also trying to squirm his way out of allegations that he received a pay-off from Sepp Blatter, which Platini claims without batting an eyelid that it was for a job he did for the beleaguered 79-year-old Swiss nine years earlier.If Fifa believes his tall tale and allows him to stand for the presidential elections in February, then it might as well allow Chuck Blazer and even Jack Warner to stand.It would be a farcical affair if Platini - who, just like Beckenbauer is denying any wrongdoing despite mounting evidence to the contrary - were allowed to stand.Musa Bility, the president of the Liberian Football Association and one of the seven endorsed candidates for the Fifa presidency, has extended an olive branch to Tokyo Sexwale and suggested that the two should meet to discuss this whole matter as African brothers.Bility is of the view that unity among Africans is paramount and should be maintained at all costs.He feels that as Africans they cannot be seen to be fighting against each other and so, suggests that if there is enough evidence that Sexwale has managed to garner enough support, he would withdraw and throw his weight behind the former South African politician-turned-businessman and, for good measure, campaign for the Mvelaphanda boss.We need to unravel the extent of the graft that was perpetuated at the Glass House in Zurich and how it was done so we could find closure and move forward...