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#INSERT type:image caption:Beckenbauer had to abandon plans to travel to Brazil for the World Cup. END# FIFA has lifted its provisional 90-day ban on Franz Beckenbauer, imposed after he failed to co-operate with an investigation into the controversial 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids. The ban forced Beckenbauer to abandon his plans to travel to Brazil for the World Cup, but his management said on Friday that world football's governing body had lifted the sanction. Beckenbauer, a member of the FIFA executive committee at the time of the awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 event to Qatar, had not answered questions from FIFA chief investigator Michael Garcia about his role in the process. He said he could not understand them because they had been filed in legal English, and claimed his request to have a meeting in German had been turned down. However, he eventually answered the questions earlier this month, meaning the ban will not now be enforced. "Beckenbauer's management still likes to think that the ban was unjustified because, to our understanding, he was not obliged to answer the FIFA questions," a press release from his management said. It quoted Beckenbauer as saying that he would not travel to Brazil despite plenty of World Cup matches remaining to be played. And it said there would be no further comment from either the former West Germany player and coach or his management.
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