Even for those who have only ever seen old footage of the likes of Pele, Best or Beckenbauer, these magicians of the Beautiful Game still hold an honored place in the minds of most football fans. Yet the German star, Franz Beckenbauer, who captained Germany to its 1974 World Cup victory, is mired in scandal. At the age of 70, he appears in danger of ending a lifetime of remarkable football achievement in disgrace.
As the sport’s world governing body FIFA struggles to cleanse the bribery and corruption that characterized the long years of Sepp Blatter’s leadership, attention has focused on the award of the 2006 World Cup to Germany. Beckenbauer was the very public face of that successful bid which saw his country edge out South Africa by a single vote.
The full details of what happened to swing the event to Germany are not yet public. But FIFA is acting after receiving a report from the German Football Association. To his credit, Beckenbauer who, when he played for Bayern Munich was known as “The Emperor” and had an admired reputation for gentlemanly behavior on the field, has already as good as admitted wrongdoing. He has said publicly that he made a “mistake” in the bidding process and has insisted that he takes full responsibility for it.
His frankness, however, has not stopped five of his then-fellow members of Germany’s Football Association from also being investigated. It is not hard to imagine what the “mistake” might have been. Epitomizing the distorting flows of huge sums of money into professional football, it is likely that financial inducements were given to sufficient members of the 23 FIFA selectors to choose Germany.
Since the World Cup competition was inaugurated in 1930, would-be hosts have gone out of their way to convince selectors of the virtue of their bids. Originally such campaigns would have included accommodation and travel costs while potential venues were being inspected, as they needed to be if FIFA was to be convinced that the event could be staged properly. But from the 1980s onwards, as the sums involved in the World Cup from broadcasting rights, sponsorship and the economic boost that the event gave to host nations grew ever larger, the ways in which selectors were influenced became increasingly dubious. Entertainment became more lavish and, as has been proven, the inducements became out-and-out bribes.
That Germany should have almost certainly been guilty of fixing the result will come as something of a shock, not least to ordinary Germans who pride themselves on their pursuit of orderliness and legality.
This said, the full extent of any wrongdoing by the German Football Association and of Franz Beckenbauer has yet to be established. Given the deeply-flawed management of FIFA by Blatter, it may well have been made clear to the Germans that they needed to make some covert deal if they wished to have a successful bid. But that in no way excuses whatever shenanigans may have taken place.
This latest scandal ought to cause everyone involved in the game to question the wider effects of the vast fortunes that are spent on star players and managers. The sad truth is that from being a sport, football has become a multi-billion dollar business and it has lost something important in the transformation.
