BAVARIAN Tax officials have raided Boris Becker's Munich home and taken away sheafs of files, fuelling, speculation that another German sports star could end up before the courts for tax dodging.
Investigators are believed to be examining the tennis player's finances for the years 1990-93, despite the fact that during that period Becker lived in tax exile in Monaco and was liable for German tax only for earnings in Germany.
Last summer, Peter Gral, father of the world number one Steffi, went on trial in Mannheim in southern Germany on charges of fiddling the German taxman of £8 millon due on his daughter's earnings.
Steffi successfully pleaded that she knew nothing of her own financial affairs and her father declared on the opening day of the court case that he was entirely responsible for Steffi's finances.
Becker may not be able to make the same case should the investigators come up with a case against him. Becker was in Florida yesterday, maintaining a silence after four tax officials gained entry to the Munich home and carried off documents.
Becker's popularity soared at home after he decided to return from tax exile in Monaco in 1994 and tolerate Germany's punitively high tax burden. Prior to the revelations about the Graf finances, Steffi, too, had always been highly regarded for her decision to remain in Germany.
Many of the highest-earning sports stars, such as Michael Schumacher or Franz Beckenbauer, have opted for nearby tax exile, in Monaco or Austria, as have pop stars and TV celebrities. Michael Jackson dropped the German leg of his world tour earlier this year, alleging that the tax payable on his German appearances rendered the trip unprofitable.
Despite the speculation of a looming Becker tax bombshell, however, the straight-talking Boris has shocked the country with a frank indictment of the racial intolerance he finds in Germany.
In a TV appearance to be screened tomorrow - Becker announces he is emigrating, not for financial reasons, but because he refuses to expose his infant son, Noah, to the German school system. Becker's wife, Barbara, is black.
According to the Bild tabloid newspaper, Becker has told the Sat-1 television station that his wife and son need to be escorted by three bodyguards on routine trips to the doctor after he received threatening phone calls and that he intends to emigrate, probably to America, before Noah comes of school age in three years' time.
. The United States introduced its Davis Cup tennis team for February's first-round tie against Brazil yesterday and captain Tom Gullikson said his squad would be up to the raucous away-court challenge.
Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Todd Martin and Alex O'Brien comprise the team named by Gullikson for the February 7th-9th tie in Ribeirao Preto against Brazil, whose last Cup opponent, Austria, quit a Sao Paulo tie because of rowdy fan behaviour.
