Beckenbauer hits back in stadia row

Franz Beckenbauer, president of the World Cup 2006 organising committee, has hit back at a report which claims some of the venues for this summer’s tournament are not up to scratch.

The Stiftung Warentest, a consumer watchdog, suggested four of the stadia – in Berlin, Leipzig, Kaiserslautern and Gelsenkirchen – were “substantially” unsafe while it deemed eight others “clearly” unsafe.