Germany: German soccer fans will be able to drink their home brew at the 2006 World Cup. Fears that German beer would be banned at the 2006 World Cup finals disappeared on Tuesday, December 21, when the American company holding stadium beverage rights agreed that German beer could be sold to fans. According to Reuters, a spokesman for the 2006 World Cup organising committee said Anheuser-Busch, which paid $40 million as one of the tournament's 15 sponsors, reached a deal with Bitburger allowing the German brewer to sell its beer in the 12 World Cup venues.

In return, Bitburger will drop its long legal battle against Anheuser-Busch advertising its top "Bud" brand across Germany on grounds consumers might confuse it with its own "Bit" brand.

"It's good news for German beer fans," Jens Grittner, a spokesman for the 2006 organising committee, told Reuters. "They can all calm down now. There will be German beer in the stadiums after all." Germans, among the world's leading consumers of beer, are abundantly proud of their strong brews. Exported to countries worldwide, German beer may be better-known and certainly better-loved than its team, which won the World Cup three times. "Beer is an extraordinarily sensitive topic in Germany," said Grittner, referring to the protests that erupted over reports German beer would be banned from the World Cup venues because Anheuser-Busch holds the rights.

Grittner said that under the agreement Bitburger will be allowed to sell its beer in the stadiums but it won't be allowed to put up advertising. He said Anheuser-Busch was primarily interested in its advertising at the World Cup stadiums. "There are other more pressing issues facing the organising committee but for the public in Germany beer was a very touchy issue," Grittner said. "We're glad it's resolved now."

Even though beer is one of the leading beverages in Germany, where a Beer Purity Law of 1516 is still in place, there are no large breweries with the means to bid for the World Cup rights. Business is divided up by among more than 1,200 breweries. Germans are the world's third largest per-capita consumers of beer, drinking 117.5 litres last year, behind only the Czech Republic and Ireland. "We never gave up hope that there would be a happy ending to the German beer question," said Grittner.

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