Thursday 1 September 2016 18:55, UK
Franz Beckenbauer is under criminal investigation by Swiss prosecutors regarding Germany's hosting of the 2006 World Cup.
German news magazine Der Speigel earlier claimed Beckenbauer was facing a probe into his role on the organising committee over alleged money laundering and breach of trust after the World Cup-winning captain led his nation's campaign to host the tournament.
The Attorney General of Switzerland later on Thursday named the 70-year-old, also the manager of the team in 1988, as one of four suspects.
The Swiss prosecutor's office said searches "for the collection of evidence" were carried out simultaneously at eight separate locations on Thursday, and "various suspects were questioned".
The other suspects named are former German Football Association (DFB) presidents Wolfgang Niersbach and Theo Zwanziger, and former general secretary Horst Rudolf Schmidt.
All four were senior figures at the DFB during Germany's World Cup bid campaign and all were on the executive board of the 2006 World Cup organising committee, with Beckenbauer its president.
The prosecutor identified all four in its statement on Thursday, and said: "The proceedings relate in particular to allegations of fraud, criminal mismanagement, money laundering and misappropriation."
Beckenbauer has previously denied any wrongdoing regarding accusations of bribery and irregular payments of several million dollars linked to FIFA.
In February, the German soccer federation published a 361-page inquiry that tried to explain a complex trail about payments of 6.7m euros ($7.3m) and 10m Swiss francs ($10m).
The money linked Beckenbauer, then-FIFA president Sepp Blatter, FIFA power broker Mohammed bin Hammam and Robert Louis-Dreyfus, the late former Adidas executive and former part owner of Swiss marketing agency Infront.
Beckenbauer is one of seven men already under investigation by FIFA's ethics committee over Germany's World Cup bidding process.
