There is no evidence of vote-rigging in the awarding of the 2006 soccer World Cup to Germany, according to a report into the scandal which piled more pressure on former World Cup chief Franz Beckenbauer over a payment issue.

"We have no proof of vote buying," Christian Duve of the Freshfields law firm, commissioned by the German Football Association (DFB), told a news conference on Friday.

"Although we cannot rule it out completely."

He said his firm had not been able to talk to everyone involved, including Sepp Blatter, the former president of world soccer's governing body FIFA who has been suspended from football over a separate, wide-reaching corruption scandal.

The affair, which has shocked soccer-mad Germany, was triggered by the payment from the German FA (DFB) to FIFA in 2005 which the DFB said last year was a return of a loan from former Adidas chief Robert Louis-Dreyfus. Der Spiegel magazine said it was allegedly used to buy votes.

Duve said the payment from the DFB had indeed been transferred to FIFA in 2005 but was not intended for the opening ceremony gala as was indicated in documents.

"It was immediately transferred on to an account of Louis-Dreyfus," Duve said.

Sports equipment maker Adidas, a long-time DFB sponsor, has said it was unaware of any such payment.

FIFA said it would study Duve's report carefully and incorporate the results into its own current investigation.

DFB interim president Rainer Koch said there was a "complete failure of mechanisms at the DFB which cannot happen again".

He also blamed former DFB chief Wolfgang Niersbach, who resigned last year over the affair and faces a tax evasion probe, for stopping information going to the DFB.

"We will not be drawing any quick conclusions," Koch said.

"We will study this report and discuss it and we will also wait for the tax authorities investigation before drawing any conclusions."