Beckenbauer makes U-turn saying Germany can win World Cup

BELGRADE, March 10 (Reuters) Franz Beckenbauer moved his position after a public spat with Juergen Klinsmann this week by saying he now believes Germany can win the World Cup this summer.

Earlier Beckenbauer turned the heat up on Germany coach Klinsmann saying the World Cup hosts had not improved with him in charge.

''At the beginning it worked out very well and Klinsmann was able to change a few things but now there's not much left of all that,'' Beckenbauer, the president of Germany's World Cup organising committee, told reporters in Munich.

''We are back where we were a few years ago and time is running out,'' added Beckenbauer, who won the World Cup as a player in 1974 and as a coach, with Klinsmann in his team, in 1990.

But yesterday in Belgrade he said he believed the host nation could lift their fourth title with Klinsmann in charge.

''There is no question that Germany can win the World Cup.

They are a young if inexperienced team and their strength lies in the support they need and surely will get from the home crowd,'' he told Reuters.

''I am optimistic that Juergen Klinsmann will be able to put together a very good team for the World Cup and because of the home advantage, Germany can win it,'' he said.

Beckenbauer has been involved in a square off with Klinsmann for skipping a workshop for World Cup coaches in Dusseldorf amidst poor results in warm-up matches.

Klinsmann, whose running of the national team has come under renewed scrutiny after a 4-1 defeat by Italy last week, had returned to his home in California instead of attending the workshop.

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