Germany's top CEOs are united on the touchline (FT)

Forget Davos or any industry meetings - if you wanted to find the biggest possible gathering of German, and global, chief executives this year look no further than last night's World Cup final between Italy and France.

The heads of groups from Adidas and Deutsche Bank to Bayer and Deutsche Telekom were in Berlin's Olympic Stadium, perhaps as much to see each other as the Azzurri take on Les Bleus. Even Carlos Ghosn, Renault and Nissan's boss, was there, taking a break from trying to form an alliance with General Motors.

Hubertus von Grünberg, chairman of Continental, a German car-part supplier and World Cup sponsor, said: "I'm not particularly interested in football but I like going to games like this because you meet such interesting people."

The relaxed atmosphere is one advantage and, unlike other events where they might bump into each other, the focus here is football - not business.

"It is a networking event outside the normal meeting places we have in a very special atmosphere," said Hakan Samuelsson, chief executive of MAN, a German truck maker, who also admitted to not being a "big football fan".

The Swede even supported Germany when his home country met them in the competition, joking that as business and consumer confidence improved in the host country with each win. "I was thinking about thesales of trucks," he said.

Rainer Schmückle, chief operating officer at Mercedes, a division of car-maker DaimlerChrysler, said: "Watching football is much more personable than Davos."

Wulf von Schimmelmann, head of Postbank, Germany's largest retail bank, said: "In the middle is the game and all the emotions that go with it and that makes for a much richer experience. It is a way to deepen business contacts without really talking about business."

For many executives Italy versus France was a chance to watch the World Cup live after a busy few weeks.

Klaus Kleinfeld, chief executive of Siemens, the German conglomerate, was forced to work through the Germany-Sweden match on a Saturday, only turning round each time the noise from the television told him a goal had been scored.

His invited guest for the opening game, Werner Wenning, Bayer's chief executive, was even more unfortunate having to cancel at the last minute as Merck, a rival drug company, looked like scuppering his takeover of Schering. "He was almost in tears when he had to cancel," said Mr Kleinfeld. But Mr Wenning made it to Berlin last night.

Not all businessmen are there for the networking opportunities. Some, such as Heinrich von Pierer, Siemens' chairman, are big football fans.

For Dieter Zetsche, DaimlerChrysler's chief executive, a reception with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, before Germany's last game on Saturday was in stark contrast to how he watched the semi-finals. "It is certainly more pleasant than seeing it in a Tokyo hotel room at 4am," he said.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006