Beckenbauer likely to be next UEFA presidency
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-10-27 17:22

Franz Beckenbauer would be honored to succeed UEFA president Lennart Johansson in 2006, the former German World Cup winner said on Tuesday.

West Germany's 1974 World Cup winner Franz Beckenbauer (pictured) and France's 1984 European championship hero Michel Platini have emerged as the main contenders to become the next UEFA president, it was confirmed. [AFP]

But the man who won soccer's biggest prize as captain in 1974 and coach in 1990 added that he was focused for now on organizing the 2006 World Cup in his homeland.

Beckenbauer is likely to be a candidate alongside France's Michel Platini, England's Geoffrey Thompson or Mathieu Sprengers from the Netherlands, Germany's SID sport news agency quoted UEFA communication director William Gaillard as saying at a meeting in Frankfurt.

Rumors that Beckenbauer, currently president of Germany's World Cup organizing committee, might be a candidate for the UEFA job circulated at the German football association's congress in Osnabrueck at the weekend.

UEFA recently imposed an age limit of 70 on members of the organization's committees, which means Johansson, 74, must step down in 2006.

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