Sidelines

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Beckenbauer marries

FOOTBALL legend Franz Beckenbauer returned to World Cup duty Saturday after taking a day off to marry the mother of his two youngest children.

The president of the World Cup Organising Committee was scheduled to watch Germany's game against Sweden in Berlin after returning from Austria where he married Heidi Burmester in a civil ceremony Friday.

It was the third marriage for the 60-year-old Bayern Munich president, who has three other children from his previous relationships.

"We wanted to be alone and avoid the crowds," Beckenbauer told the newspaper Bild after the noontime ceremony in the Austrian resort of Kitzbuehel. "We're very happy," said his 39-year-old partner, who used to work as a secretary with Bayern Munich.

The couple have two children, Joel, five, and Francesca, two.

Beckenbauer's first marriage lasted from 1966 to 1990. He divorced his second wife, Sybille, in 2004.

Minor trouble

GERMAN organisers have played down trouble involving England fans in Stuttgart and insisted the scale of the problem is small compared to the numbers of supporters at the World Cup overall.

More than 300 fans were in police custody following two nights of incidents before England's match with Ecuador. Around 70,000 England fans are estimated to be in Stuttgart and 100,000 Germans turned up at the fan park in the city to watch the hosts play Sweden, and it was after this that trouble flared.

Jens Grittner, spokesman for the German World Cup organising committee, said: "Police intervened immediately and we are very happy about that, but these incidents have nothing to do with hooliganism -- it was not people who were known to the police."

He added: "We are not that worried. If you consider the huge number of people partying peacefully in Germany you must regard this as an exception.

"This can happen at any kind of party. We don't want to reduce the seriousness of this but we must compliment the police for their immediate intervention."

Beckham dehydrated

ENGLAND's match-winning captain David Beckham was suffering from dehydration before the last-16 clash against Ecuador even before kick-off, it has been revealed.

The Real Madrid midfielder scored the only goal from a curling 60th-minute free kick but was later seen being sick on the pitch. Beckham was visibly struggling in the closing moments of the match and was eventually replaced by Tottenham winger Aaron Lennon in the 87th minute.

After the match a Football Association spokesman confirmed the 31-year-old former Manchester United player had been suffering from dehydration prior to kick-off.

Khan upset

OLIVER Kahn has launched an attack on coach Jurgen Klinsmann after being consigned to the role of Germany's No 2 goalkeeper at the World Cup, admitting he would "never understand" the decision to hand Arsenal«s Jens Lehmann the starting job.

Television pictures of Germany«s 2-0 second- round victory over Sweden confirmed that a grim-faced Kahn was not enjoying himself at the end of the German bench. The 37-year-old has kept his disappointment to himself since Germany started their preparations in mid-May, but has now publicly bemoaned his fate.

"There was talk he (Lehmann) was supposedly better than me, but do you replace a long- time No 1, who is playing constantly, just because someone else is a 'tick' better?," he told Spiegel magazine. "That is no explanation for me. And since there has been none as of today, there is probably none. I told him I could never understand why I am not the No 1 anymore."