Kaiser mooted for UEFA role

WEST GERMANY’S 1974 World Cup winner Franz Beckenbauer has refused to rule himself out of the running to succeed Lennart Johansson as UEFA president in 2006.

Beckenbauer, head of the 2006 World Cup organising committee, is one of the favourites for the UEFA presidency, along with France’s 1984 European championship hero Michel Platini, and said the post appealed.

“I am not ruling it out but at the moment I just want to concentrate on the 2006 World Cup,” Beckenbauer told television channel DSF.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has backed Bayern Munich president Beckenbauer to succeed Johansson. He is regarded as one of the finest ever defenders, winning the 1974 World Cup as a player before coaching West Germany to the 1990 World Cup.