The footballers for West Germany who played against England in the nation’s only successful FIFA World Cup campaign could have been injected with performance enhancing drugs, a recent report has revealed.

A report that has been prepared by researchers in Germany have attributed the government with continuing with a large scale doping scandal that transcended all sports and also percolated to football and this has brought down a huge cloud on the successful Germany World Cup winning team of 1974 under the leadership of Franz Beckenbauer as well.

The reports were leaked by a German publication of a long research into state financed doping in the country. According to the leaked report attributed to the unpublished report, the doping scandal may have kicked off under state aid after the Second World War and such was the insistence of the government to be better than their East German counterparts that they spent millions of dollars to fund the project.

According to the report, an interior minister of the country at that time had stated that the athletes of Germany should have the same conditions as well as services as the East German bloc and this led to a competition with the bitter rivals that led to the doping experiments.

The report also stated that amphetamines were used on a large scale by the soldiers of the country in the Second World War and the footballers in Germany continued the trend starting from the 1950s well into the 1980s.

However, it has also been claimed that the German players could also have administered the drugs on themselves accidentally through the use of a decongestant for colds that was used on a large scale during that time. England defeated the team 4-2 in the final of the 1966 World Cup on home soil.

After coming close to winning a major competition in the last three, Germany will be one of the favourites to lift the 2014 FIFA World Cup when it is held in Brazil in just under 12 months. There is a lot of pressure on manager Joachim Loew, which is surprising given that he was hailed as the saviour of German football only a few years back. However, repeated failures in major competitions has allowed some doubts to creep into the minds of German fans and media. Loew will be under enormous pressure to deliver the 2014 World Cup to Germany.

He has said that he is already looking forward to the World Cup after the Confederations cup, which is like a precursor to the World Cup, is coming to an end. Germany have not taken part in this competition, but they have seen the likes of Spain and Italy struggle. This will have certainly given them a lot of hope, as these two teams have been one of the strongest from Europe. Germany, on the other hand, will have reasons to be concerned about Brazil and Argentina, who have been coming to form at just the right stage.

Even though there were dangers of the Confederations cup being halted, Loew is confident that the World Cup will be held in a successful manner.

“My initial impression is very positive. The people are very friendly and incredibly fanatical about football. I think it will be a memorable World Cup next year. I am not concerned about the security situation, I am sure it will be very secure,” said the 53-year-old manager. He has been widely linked with a move to club football. Real Madrid are thought to be heavily interested in his services after losing their manager José Mourinho only recently.