Beckenbauer in Iran on pre-finals tour

fifaworldcup - Franz Beckenbauer, the head of the organising committee for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™, was in Iran on Sunday on the first leg of a globe-trotting tour which will eventually see him visit all 32 of the countries qualified.

The former Bayern Munich legend, who won FIFA World Cups as a player and coach, was quick to be a crowd pleaser here by telling Iranian journalists their national side could well prove to be a giant-killer next year.

"Iran has a very good team and has the power necessary to be a part of the best teams in the world and make it through the quarter finals," he said, drawing loud applause.

He also praised Iran's veteran 36-year-old captain Ali Daei, who attended the press conference, as "a great ambassador and one of the best players that Bayern Munich had".

"I won the World Cup in 1974 as a captain and in 1990 as a manager, but I have to say this experience is more difficult because you only have one chance in your life to organise a World Cup," Beckenbauer said of his task.

Beckenbauer is on an unprecedented trip to personally invite the qualifying sides, a gesture highly appreciated in Iran which is set to send between five and six thousand fans to Germany.

"Mr Beckenbauer's initiative is great. We hope to do better than the last times we were at the World Cup, in Argentina in 1974 and France in 1998, and be good representatives of Islamic Iran," said the head of Iran's football federation, Mohammad Dadkan.

The 2006 finals kick off in Munich on 9 June with the final in Berlin on 9 July.

Ten nations have already booked their ticket for the finals -- Germany, Argentina, Japan, Iran, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, United States, Brazil and Mexico.