The head of the World Cup organizing committee Franz Beckenbauer on Thursday distanced himself from standing against Sepp Blatter to be FIFA president next year.

"There is no-one better for this job than Sepp Blatter," Beckenbauer said in an interview with Der Tagesspiegel newspaper. "He can talk with anyone. I can only speak German and a little English. Blatter can speak Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese and that is a big advantage."

"FIFA is Blatter's life. That is his family. He doesn't have young children like me. He has no other family."

Beckenbauer, 60, who won World Cups with Germany as a player in 1974 and as coach in 1990, won admirers for spearheading the bid to win Germany the right to host this year's tournament which kicks off on June 9.

Former Swiss lawyer Blatter, 70, announced in March that he would stand for a third term in office in next year's election. He succeeded the Brazilian Joao Havelange at the head of FIFA in 1998 and won re-election in a landslide victory over the Cameroonian candidate Issa Hayatou on the eve of the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.

Blatter fought off wide-ranging accusations of financial irregularities and vote-buying to secure his second term in office.