The last six months have been an embarrassment to German football as the country prepares to host the 2006 World Cup, Franz Beckenbauer said on Thursday. "We've been a disgrace for half a year," Beckenbauer, president of the World Cup organising committee, said in a frank interview with German soccer magazine Kicker. "Since last July we've been virtually incapable of action. It's got to stop. We must get back to normality."

He added: "We've been sitting in the shit for six months."

The long search for a replacement for coach Rudi Voeller, who resigned in June after Germany's first-round exit at Euro 2004, was the first major incident to get in the way of World Cup organisation.

Since then, a messy compromise deal over the presidency of the German Football Association and the current match-fixing scandal have continued to keep attention away from next year's tournament.

Robert Hoyzer, the 25-year-old referee at the centre of the scandal, has admitted fixing several matches and is under arrest on charges of suspected fraud. Berlin prosecutors are investigating a total of 25 people.

Beckenbauer said the country needed to turn attention back to the World Cup, especially with the Confederations Cup now just a few months away.

"I look forward to us getting away from the side-shows," Beckenbauer said.

"In four months we have the first big test in the Confederations Cup but no one is talking about that."

Copyright Reuters, 2005