By Andrew Warshaw
November 11 – Franz Beckenbauer is standing down as a member of FIFA’s Executive Committee, ruling him out of standing against Sepp Blatter for the Presidency next year.
The German legend, who made a hugely successful transition from captain to manager of his national team and then to one of football’s most respected administrators, has announced he will not be standing for re-election.
Beckenbauer, 65, cited “personal and family reasons” for his decision to step down from a position he has held since January 2007.
“I had and have a good time with my colleagues on the FIFA board, and with UEFA, and I have a friendly relationship with Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini,” said the man known in his playing days as Kaiser.
Beckenbauer has said he wants to spend time with his current wife Heidi and children Joel and Francesca.
“Hardly anybody has had such a full life as I have had,” he said, expressing the need to cut back on his travelling.
Beckenbauer’s term as UEFA’s representative on FIFA’s Executive Committee ends next spring and a successor will be elected in March.
At one time he was being touted as a possible successor to Blatter but that is now effectively dead in the water.
Beckenbauer, who won the World Cup as a player in 1974 and as a manager in 1994 before heading the organisation committee for the 2006 World Cup – regarded as the best for decades – said he would not be changing his mind.
One of his final acts as a member of the FIFA Executive Committee will be to cast his vote for the hosts of the 2018 and 2002 World Cups on December 2.
He has long praised the idea of the World Cup returning to England but in recent weeks reports have surfaced that he has switched his 2018 allegiance to Russia.
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