Beckenbauer to referee children's match for SOS Children's Villages

(4 November 2004) - German football legend Franz Beckenbauer, the only man to have won the World Cup both as a player and as a coach, will referee a friendly match for children in the care of SOS Children's Villages. This friendly event forms part of the "6 villages for 2006" charity campaign between SOS Children's Villages and world football's governing body FIFA.

Later in the day in Leipzig, Beckenbauer, president of the German World Cup organising committee and of German club Bayern Munich, will be unveiling the official mascot of the 2006 FIFA World CupTM. "There is nothing more beautiful in the world than giving children a home," said Beckenbauer, an avid supporter of SOS Children's Villages for many years.

The "6 villages for 2006" campaign, which will run until the end of the 2006 FIFA World CupTM aims to collect donations for the construction of six new SOS Children's Villages on different continents. These new children's villages, which will be built in Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, Ukraine and Vietnam, will provide homes in a family environment for hundreds of orphaned, abandoned and destitute children.

Children participating in this friendly match are in the care of various SOS Children's Villages in German and France. The football match will kick-off on Saturday, 13 November 2004 at 14:30 at the: Sportschule "Egidius Braun" Leipzig, Abtnaundorfer Straße 47, 04347 Leipzig, Germany.

SOS Children's Villages is a non-governmental and non-denominational children's welfare organisation providing long-term care for destitute, abandoned and orphaned children in 132 countries and territories. Over 55,000 children are being cared for at the organisation's 449 SOS Children's Villages and youth facilities worldwide. In addition, the organisation provides families with welfare and educational services. Some 130,000 children and youths attend SOS Schools, Kindergartens and Vocational Training Centres, while more than 500,000 benefit from SOS Medical and Social Centres and SOS Emergency Relief Programmes.

Contact:

Adriana Pontieri,
Press Officer,
SOS-Kinderdorf International
(+43-1) 368 24 57 EXT. 2185
e-mail: adriana.pontieri@sos-kd.org