Germany taking good care of 2006 World Cup business

INTERNAL rows and personal bickering remain an entertaining sideshow but with just over 17 months to go before the 2006 World Cup in Germany there is barely a hint of trouble on the organisational front.

A mammoth €1.5billion stadium building programme is on schedule, tickets are about to go on sale and the tournament mascot - a huge puppet lion with a sidekick talking football - is already busy on the PR work.

It should come as no great surprise that Germany is taking care of business. The big news is that the hosts might just be building a team capable of challenging for victory.