Scandals and squabbles overshadow on-field success

If there was any doubt about how badly Germany has been hit by the endless stream of scandals and squabbles, Franz Beckenbauer was on hand to set the record straight.

"We've been a disgrace since July," said Beckenbauer, president of the 2006 World Cup organising committee and German football's most respected figure.

"We've been sitting in the mud for six months."

Beckenbauer's frank assessment of German attempts to resolve the administrative mess came just as the country was hit by another wave of largely self-inflicted problems.

The match-fixing scandal raged on, as disgraced referee Robert Hoyzer was arrested on charges of suspected fraud and two more referees were suspended.

The saga, which is now threatening to take in a UEFA Cup match in Greece, managed to eclipse the groundbreaking Frankfurt workshop attended by 46 candidate referees for the World Cup.

Even worse news was to come. Borussia Dortmund, Bundesliga champions as recently as 2002 and European champions in 1997, announced that they were on the brink of bankruptcy in a stark reminder of the financial problems most German clubs are facing.

It also emerged last week that Stefan Trautmann, a refereeing official at the DFB, was under investigation for selling refereeing kit on the internet.

Trautmann says he was selling the gear for charity but he was nevertheless suspended by the DFB.

Perhaps most damaging of all, controversy flared once again over the compromise deal that gave outgoing Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder and incoming Theo Zwanziger joint presidency of the DFB until the World Cup is over.

There is no end in sight to Germany's troubles but it will be a shame if the problems continue to take attention away from a much more positive outlook in sporting terms.

On the field, the German game is in better shape than it has been for years.

The Bundesliga is providing one of the most exciting title battles in Europe, with Bayern Munich and Schalke 04 leading the charge and another four teams still in with a chance of catching them.

There may be no players with the cachet of Ronaldinho or David Beckham to appeal to foreign television audiences but match attendances remain high and ticket prices are low.

Three German teams scored 37 goals between them over the Champions League first phase as they gave the country its most convincing display in the competition since the 1997-98 season.

Bayern Munich will lead the charge into the knockout stage with a top class tie in prospect against Arsenal, while Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen have excellent chances to progress against Olympique Lyon and Liverpool respectively.

There is a real air of excitement about the Bundesliga at present which the national team, revitalised since the arrival of Juergen Klinsmann as coach, is doing its best to match.

Germany seemed set to ride that wave of optimism all the way to the World Cup finals in 2006 before the Hoyzer scandal broke, shattering confidence in the way the game is being run.

Beckenbauer was careful not to call for Mayer-Vorfelder's head but his comments were certainly a demand for the DFB to pull itself together and sort out the administrative mess.

"The joint-presidency cannot work," Beckenbauer said.

When 'Der Kaiser' talks people in Germany listen, and Mayer-Vorfelder has spent the last few days fending off questions about his future.

Whether he can keep doing so until the tournament kicks off next June is open question that remains to be answered.