Franz Beckenbauer has said he will not be standing for the FIFA presidency in 2006.

Beckenbauer has been widely tipped as a possible future leader of the international federation whose controversial president, Sepp Blatter, has said he will not seek re-election at congress on the eve of the next World Cup finals in Germany.

However Beckenbauer said: “I will not stand because I have too many other duties to attend to in the run-up to the World Cup finals on my own doorstep.”

Beckenbauer is president of Bayern Munich, a vice-president of the German federation and a key figure in the German domestic World Cup organising committee.
By Keir Radnedge