From articulate footballers to undersexed fans

The World Cup is about far more than just watching football. For a month life is also dominated by the verbal outpourings of players and coaches, Sprinter trains and whether the beer is better in Cologne or Düsseldorf. Here is the FT's guide to some of the off-field winners and losers of the World Cup.

*Intelligent players: In the twilight area of the mixed zone where journalists and players converse after the game, three stood out as football's Wittgensteins: France's Lilian Thuram, Germany's Christoph Metzelder and Kasey Keller of USA. The prime loser may not particularly lack intelligence;it is just that his gamesmanship made him look like a wally - step forward Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal.

*Managers: The Dutch coaches had a mixed World Cup with Trinidad and Tobago's Leo Beenhakker proving himself one of the game's most articulate speakers while Holland's own Marco van Basten produced as dull a Dutch side as in living memory. As for expectation management, future generations will look in puzzlement at Sven-Göran Eriksson's insistence on bringing Theo Walcott and that England would winthe trophy. Equal bemusement will greet German media calls for Jürgen Klinsmann's head only weeks before he took a bunch of players of limited talent to the semi-finals - and deservedly so.

*Bars: The manager of Garibaldi's bar in Baden-Baden was so moved by the presence of the England players' WAGs (wives and girlfriends), he said: "The first six bottles of champagne I gave them, the rest they paid for." The losers were undoubtedly all German bars who declared themselves "eine WM-freie Zone" (a World-Cup-free zone"), thus misinterpreting the entire mood of the land.

*Food and drink: Brewers in any of the five cities visited by England proved they could organise a "session" as fans drank an extraordinary 17 pints a head per city. The unquestioned loser was anybody's liver having the misfortune to go within a mile of a stadium where the food was unwholesome, grease-laden and artery-clogging.

In the sub-category of beer, the clear loser was the insipid taste of official sponsor Budweiser while any number of local brews - from Alt in Düsseldorf and Kölsch in Cologne to smoked beer in Bamberg and wheat beer in Munich - cameout on top, provided the drinker could remember the next day what he had been imbibing.

*Hospitality girl outfits: Sponsors had clearly tried hard to draw punters' attention not just to the girls escorting their guests but also their uniforms. Car parts maker Continental came up with a body-hugging yellow jumpsuit that got the most stares, while Adidas's shiny and revealing but garish outfit failed to stir the fashionistas.

*Broadcasters: Former German international Günter Netzer proved to be the feistiest, asking moderators on public television: "Will you let me get a word in?", "Do you really expect me to answer that?" and "Why do you invite me here if you're going to talk all the time?"

*Transport: Taxi drivers whinged more than normal after fans tended to opt for the more communal and friendly public transport. Germany's train system put many other countries' to shame as "shall we take the 1.30am or 2.30am train?" became a regular conversation point.

*Entrepreneurs: Eastern European prostitutes who had travelled to Germany expecting a bonanza faced disappointment as they discovered football fans prefer, well, football - and beer. But German flag makers enjoyed a boon, although a black-red-and-gold vibrator did seem to be taking patriotism somewhat too far.

*Big winner: Germany had an unfortunate stereotype among visitors as an unfriendly, unfunny, war-mongering country. A month of perfect sunshine, thousands of new friendships and a chance to see how beautiful a country it is - the concrete monstrosityof the Ruhr region aside - meant Germany's image gained the biggest boost while proud Germans reclaimed the country and its symbols for themselves.