Beckenbauer ready for new challenge as FIFA executive

By Arne Richter Jan 23, 2007, 8:57 GMT

Dusseldorf, Germany - As World Cup chief organizer, Franz Beckenbauer flew around the world welcoming each and every participant while discovering his heart for footballing diplomacy.

Now the 'kaiser' is about to begin a new and unfamiliar task on the international stage.

On Friday at the congress of the European body UEFA in Dusseldorf, he seems certain to be elected into the executive committee of football's world governing body FIFA, as UEFA representative.

'It will be an honour for me to represent German football in FIFA,' the 61-year-old former playing great and coach says.

However, for the first time in his distinguished career in and around football, Beckenbauer's obligations will no longer be those of a national German interest.

Even a Beckenbauer will have to see where he fits in among the experienced footballing functionaries sitting on the 24-strong committee.

'Let's wait and see what the other executive committee members leave for me to do,' he said in an interview this week with the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

However, the Bayern Munich president makes no secret of his liking for 'international tasks and missions' and, in particular, Africa is a continent he has grown to love.

'I know my way around in the world and know where the poorest of the poor are to be found. To help out here a little bit would actually be what I would prefer,' he said.

Not that Beckenbauer, even as a sort of footballing 'foreign minister', would have all the time in the world to travel around the continents.

The executive committee, meeting every three months in Zurich, will demand new qualities of meticulousness and attention to detail from a man who is often guided by instinct.

Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, his German predecessor on the executive committee, indicates Beckenbauer will have to be doing his homework.

'Anyone sitting on an international committee is expected to occupy himself with the material. Franz will have to start reading files,' he said.

Yet Beckenbauer is welcomed wherever he goes, and is a undoubtedly a trump card for the German Football Federation (DFB), as its president Theo Zwanziger readily admits.

'Beckenbauer will always be a personality in international football who plays an important role in key decisions,' he said.

FIFA president Joseph Blatter has also welcomed his friend on board, especially as Beckenbauer has made it clear that his disdain for office work rules out any ambitions for the post of president.

UEFA president Lennart Johansson would also have liked a UEFA role for Beckenbauer.

Johannson saw Beckenbauer as his successor, but the German did not want to run as a candidate against either Johansson or challenger Michel Platini.

Not only would the outcome have been uncertain but Beckenbauer would have had to lose some lucrative advertising deals.

That leaves Johansson facing Platini in a two-way race for the UEFA presidency which will be decided at Friday's UEFA congress vote.

Beckenbauer, who has been accustomed to getting near 100 per cent backing as an unchallenged candidate at Bayern Munich club elections, does not have to fear any election defeat on Friday.

The only other candidate for the executive committee post is Spain's Angel Maria Villar Llona, who is thought almost certain to be elected UEFA vice-president and will then not have to run against Beckenbauer for the place on the FIFA committee.

That would leave Beckenbauer, as usual, in a league of his own.