Der Kaiser outshines the Blazer

Emmet Malone looks back on a tournament that showed the Germans in a favourable light, especially Franz Beckenbauer.

Sepp Blatter was doing what he does best in Berlin yesterday, hanging out with the politicians and portraying himself, rather pompously, as a leader whose importance transcends the game of football.

The occasion was the signing of an agreement between FIFA and the EU under which the two organisations will co-operate on development work in Africa as well as the Pacific and Caribbean regions. Under the scheme, the EU will devote considerable funds from existing aid budgets to projects that use football as a tool to advance causes such as children's right, education and inter-cultural tolerance.

Joined by South African president Thabo Mbeki and the Louis Michel from the European Commission for Humanitarian and Development Aid, Blatter looked to be in his element but it was a rare good day for the FIFA president who has not enjoyed the best of times at this 18th World Cup.

Blatter, indeed, has been one of the bigger losers at a tournament characterised by the fierce rivalries that were played out both on and off the pitch. While the biggest blazer of them all looked on helplessly from the many and varied VIP sections that make up his world, Franz Beckenbauer has publicly run rings around him, underpinning his huge popularity here in Germany while sufficiently impressing those who wield power within the game from overseas to establish himself as a front runner for the job of UEFA president when Lennart Johansson finally departs the scene. Michel Platini is widely held to be Blatter's man for the job.

Last night's final was the 46th game attended since June 9th by Beckenbauer whose hectic schedule over the past few weeks included a few hours out to marry long-time partner Heidi Burmester. Her attempts to keep up with Der Kaiser (21 years her senior) resulted in her being caught on camera at least once slumped, fast asleep in the front row of a stand as play and football politics continued around her.

Of far greater interest here than Blatter's photocall yesterday morning was the arrival up the road at the Brandenburg gate of the German side fresh from their win over Portugal in Stuttgart the previous evening.

Jürgen Klinsmann and his players were welcomed back to the capital by more than 500,000 jubilant supporters for whom not just the German's side's third place finish but the tournament as a whole has vastly exceeded expectations.

The German coach's victory is rather immediate. Widely criticised during the build-up to the tournament for the amount of time he was spending in America and pilloried after his side's 4-1 defeat by Italy in March, Klinsmann had to fight hard even to take a backroom team of his own choosing into the tournament. Now, he has been offered a new deal on terms he may effectively dictate and given until August 16th to decide if he will still be in charge when Ireland travel here for the their opening European Championship 2008 qualifier at the start of September.

Bild, the German tabloid which had been particularly vicious in its baiting of the former Tottenham striker, completed its u-turn on Saturday when it published a front-page petition calling on the coach to stay under the headline, "Germany Fights For Klinsmann".

Beckenbauer, though, is likely to be the more substantial long-term beneficiary of the competition's success, though, with most German's crediting him with having first brought the competition here and then ensured that it went well.

"Most people believe that without Beckenbauer the World Cup would not have come to Germany," says Torsten Korner, a biographer of the former international. "He threw his power and prestige behind it when Germany did not have a good image around the world and in doing so he improved it."

Certainly his standing now is unmatched here. "No politician will ever have this sort of popularity," observes Detlev Claussen, a sociologist at the University of Hanover. "No rock star or film star will ever be this popular. There is a media ideology in Germany that he can simply do no wrong."

It is a position that quite a few others must have viewed with considerable envy as they departed this World Cup. The English media, for instance, finally bade farewell to Sven-Goran Eriksson after a five-year pitched battle that went far beyond mere criticism of his on-field tactics.

The first stories to emerge of violence being used at this tournament did not involve supporters at all, but journalists who fought both amongst themselves and with organisers. Perhaps, the most bizarre incident involved the English reporter who punched a colleague in a dispute over Bryan Robson's record in management at Middlesbrough.

Other winners were the Togo players whose determination to secure more than half the money the national association was receiving for being at this World Cup for themselves succeeded when Fifa set a precedent that may come back to haunt it by agreeing to pay the cash directly to them after they had threatened to not to turn up for their group games.

Though the amount of low level stuff has been reduced considerably, American touts have continued to clean up at the top end of the market, routinely charging more than a €1,000 for tickets. I asked one where he got the vast number of tickets he was trading and (he claimed to be able to get 750 tick for the semi-final between France and Portugal) he casually claimed that corrupt Fifa officials (a small minority, of course) were happy to do business with him.

Losers have included referees one way then another by the constant stream of directives and public comments by Blatter intended to shape the way they handle games. By and large the standard was quite good but neither Graham Poll becoming the first referee since 1974 to book a player twice without immediately sending him off in a finals tournament match nor Valentin Ivanov's hapless handling of the street fight with a ball between Holand and Portugal will be quickly forgotten.

Overall, though, there has been a great deal to cheer about. Most importantly, the football, like the venues at which it was played, was generally very good while the German public's reaction to it better. The country, in short, put on quite a show to be proud off and while Blatter quietly seethes, it is Beckenbauer who is out front taking the bows.