Yeboah accuses former club of tax evasion

FRANKFURT, Aug 3 (Reuters)(DS) - Ghanaian striker Tony Yeboah, answering tax evasion charges, told a German court on Thursday that his former Eintracht Frankfurt club was to blame. Yeboah, now with Hamburg SV, is alleged to have failed to pay tax on 2.3 million marks ($1.06 million) he received after extending his contract with Eintracht in 1993.

As his trial opened, the 34-year-old former Leeds player said his Eintracht bosses had used the fact that he knew nothing about the German tax system.

In a statement read in court by his lawyer, Thomas Kruppa, Yeboah said: "I didn't know anything about tax and I still don't. I assumed that everything was all right. Nobody explained to me that Eintracht were carrying out tax evasion. Eintracht abused my trust."

Also accused are former Eintracht vice-president Bernd Hoelzenbein and former treasurer Wolfgang Knispel. Kruppa said last week his client, who has already paid back 900,000 marks ($415,700) in tax money, had agreed to pay German authorities an extra 400,000 ($184,800). Kruppa said Yeboah's poor command of German led to a misunderstanding about his tax situation. The lawyer said last week he hoped the trial would be called off but it went ahead as planned.

A second day of hearings scheduled for August 8 has been postponed to enable Yeboah to take part in Hamburg's Champions League qualifying match away to Denmark's Brondby on that day. No new date has been set yet.