Beckenbauer signs up Pope

BY DAVID V BARRETT
GERMANY’S football team may have an unexpected advantage over their rivals in next summer’s World Cup, with a papal blessing on the tournament, which Germany is hosting. Pope Benedict XVI, not known for his interest in the beautiful game – unlike his predecessor – was expected to meet Franz Beckenbauer, head of the 2006 Fifa World Cup organising committee and a football legend known as “the Kaiser”, in the Vatican on Wednesday. It was thought that Mr Beckenbauer would be accompanied by Germany’s 2006 World Cup ambassador Rudi Voeller.
Mr Beckenbauer expressed his delight at the prospect of meeting the first German pope in over 500 years. Both the Pope and “the Kaiser” are Bavarian. “We contacted the Vatican relatively late to ask to meet the Holy Father, so we are especially happy and more grateful that he has now made this possible,” he said.