Horst-Gregorio Canellas

Horst-Gregorio Canellas (6 June 1921 – 23 July 1999)[1] was a German entrepreneur and football official. Canellas is best known for his role in breaking the 1971 Bundesliga scandal. He was also a hostage on the hijacked German Lufthansa Flight 181 in 1977.

Horst-Gregorio Canellas
Born(1921-06-06)6 June 1921
Plauen, Saxony, Germany
Died23 July 1999(1999-07-23) (aged 78)
Offenbach am Main, Hesse, Germany
NationalitySpanish, German
OccupationFruit importer
Known forChairman of Kickers Offenbach,
Involvement in the 1971 Bundesliga scandal

Biography

Canellas, son of a Spanish father and a German mother, was born in Plauen, Saxony, in 1921. After the end of World War II he spent some time in Spain and then moved to Hesse and adopted German citizenship. He became the managing director of a fruit importer in Frankfurt.[2][3][4]

In 1964 Canellas became chairman of Kickers Offenbach, a club then playing in the second division Regionalliga Süd. Offenbach won promotion to the Bundesliga in 1968 and 1970 but suffered immediate relegation on both occasions.[4]

The day after the end of the 1970–71 Bundesliga season Canellas invited officials of the German Football Association and the press to his 50th birthday celebration. It was there that he broke the 1971 Bundesliga scandal by replaying voice recordings he had made of attempts to manipulate Bundesliga games through bribes. Earlier attempts to inform the German Association had been ignored by the latter. Canellas stepped down immediately as chairman of Kickers Offenbach and was initially banned for life from holding any office at a German football club but this ban was lifted in 1976. The following scandal took 18-months to clear up and saw 52 players and two managers banned and fined.[5][6][7]

Canellas retired from his business in 1974. On a flight from Mallorca to Frankfurt in 1977 the plane he was on, Lufthansa Flight 181, was hijacked by members of the PLO and the hostages were later freed by the German counter-terrorism unit GSG 9 in Mogadishu.[5]

Canellas died of lung cancer after a long illness in Offenbach in 1999.[5][8]

References
  1. "Horst-Gregorio Canellas". kicker.de (in German). kicker. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
  2. "Ein Elfmeter kostet 1000 Mark" [A penalty costs DM1,000]. Der Spiegel (in German). 14 June 1971. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
  3. Hesse, Ulrich (2003). Tor!: The Story of German Football. WSC Books Limited. ISBN 9780954013455. Retrieved 2 July 2016 – via google.com.au.
  4. "Boss, wir müssen Spiele kaufen" [Boss, we have to buy games]. Der Spiegel (in German). 24 April 1972. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
  5. "Bundesliga: Zentralfigur des Bundesliga-Skandals ist tot" [Bundesliga: Central figure of the Bundesliga scandal has died]. Der Spiegel (in German). 23 July 1999. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
  6. "Hintergrund: Der Bundesliga-Skandal von 1971" [Background: The Bundesliga scandal from 1971]. Der Spiegel (in German). 23 January 2005. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
  7. Leyenberg, Hans-Joachim (1 February 2005). "Aus Unschuldsbeteuerungen wurden Meineide" [Pleas of innocence turned into perjury]. Faz.net (in German). Retrieved 2 July 2016.
  8. "Horst Gregorio Canellas". Der Spiegel (in German). 26 July 1999. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
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