What do footballers' wives and girlfriends (known as WAGS in English parlance) like more than watching their dudes dribble down the pitch and drive one into the back of the net? Chanel, Gucci and Prada of course.

Several members of this svelte, long-legged species have been spotted preying the normally tranquil streets of Baden-Baden, a resort town in Germany's southwest, since the start of the World Cup. The women, all better-halves associated with team England, discovered Baden-Baden's ubiquitous treasures as their men trained for their next match.

A fashion expert from the tabloid Bild, who must have spent countless hours following the women around, has now exposed the trophy women's spectacular spending habits. The six women under investigation from the fashion police managed to blow €80,000 in an hour -- an astounding €4,395 every ten minutes! Let's just hope their men don't suffer any career-ending injuries anytime soon.

But the burning question on everyone's mind, of course, is what does one wear when dropping so much cash? Bild, thankfully, has the answer.

Victoria Beckman, England's top football wife, sex symbol and expert shopper, graced B-Baden's hard cement streets in a fuchsia Pink Joseph shirt, black Roberto Cavalli shorts, Chanel bag, and black Dolce and Gabbana pumps. The former "Posh Spice's" outfit, which cost a total of €1,943, is quite possibly the most fashionable seen in the chic spa town since last winter's fur-clad nouveau riche from Russia departed.

However, not all footballers' mates looked as hot as Frau Beckman in their designer garb. Nancy, girlfriend of trainer Sven-Göran Eriksson, looked like a giant marshmallow in her all white designer mixes. If there was a lesson to be learned from Nancy's experimentation, it is this: An orange glow does not go well with angelic white or a peasant boy hat (even if it is Dior). Nancy's ridiculous frock, which, it must be said, slightly resembles a white trash bag, cost a stunning €3,129, reported Bild. With that, Nancy could hire herself three Spiegel interns for the summer to spin some positive PR; she certainly needs it.

But then, perhaps we at Spiegel Online are just petty and jealous. With the England-Sweden match coming up on Tuesday night, though, we couldn't resist doing a bit of research for all those tempted by a shopping spree to Sweden.

Things that €4,395 can buy in Stockholm:

744 packages of Swedish Meatballs at Ikea

552 Tank tops (assorted colors) at H & M

1/5 of a Volvo S40

338 ABBA "Gold:The Greatest Hits" albums

-- Denise Terry, 6:00 p.m. CET

Austria's McChancellor Stumping for Greasy McD's

You can't really imagine George Bush appearing in a Burger King commercial or Tony Blair biting into a Kentucky Fried Chicken and licking his chops for the camera. But the Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel has caused a political brouhaha by appearing in a McDonalds advert to coincide with the World Cup.

What's the Austrian chancellor doing in a fastfood commercial? Perhaps needless to say, he didn't have much choice in the matter. It's all the fault of ad agency CCP Heye but this hasn't stopped Austrian opposition political parties wading into the controversy.

Austria is a sad place to be right now. The country failed to qualify for the World Cup this year after England and Poland pushed it into third place in the qualifying group. Now it has to sit back and watch neighbor Germany reap all the plaudits for staging the World Cup, right on its doorstep.

So, advertising agency CCP Heye developed a new marketing strategy for McDonalds which aimed to cheer everyone up and stir a bit of national pride. Every week McDonalds is promoting a new burger, named after one of the World Cup winning nations (e.g "McItaly"). The slogan for the campaign is simple -- "Österreich isst Weltmeister" -- "Austria is the world champion at eating." The germanophiles among you will have noticed it's a play on words -- "Austria is World Champion". "We Austrians are offended that we're not taking part in the World Cup," says Peter Czerny, the boss of CCP Heye which produced the ad.

But alongside images of ski-jumper Andreas Goldberger and footballer Andreas Herzog waving an Austrian scarf bearing the slogan, the campaign features a billboard image of the Austrian Chancellor proudly holding a scarf displaying the message. Seriously?

The Chancellor's spokeswoman explains, "Herr Schüssel doesn't do product advertising as a matter of principle." You see he didn't actually choose to be in the campaign, McDonalds just co-opted him and the burger joint paid a tidy sum to charity as compensation. But opposition politicians don't see the matter as a bit of harmless fun. Elections are coming up in the autumn and Schüssel stands accused of colluding in the campaign to push some positive spin. It doesn't help that several employees of the PR agency employed by the Chancellor also used to work on the burger chain's campaigns. But Manuela Bruck, senior consultant of Pleon Publico, the PR firm in question says, "We haven't got anything to do with the campaign."

Schüssel wasn't asked to take part in the advertising campaign because he would simply have said no. So his participation remained a secret until his face appeared on the billboards. "Sportsmen would have sued straight away," says Czerny, "But it doesn't come over well if a big name politician sues a small agency." It's a tactic German Chancellor Angela Merkel knows only too well. A few years ago she featured in an advertising campaign for a car rental firm. The photo showed her with a punk hair cut next to the slogan "Fancy a new haircut? Rent a cabriolet".

-- Chris Bryant, 1:30 p.m. CET (Additional reporting by Florian Sailer)

Klinsmann Shows Media Bread Light

German trainer Jürgen Klinsmann has appealed to the media to stay away. The constant attention is all getting too much. He's not talking about intense media intrusion into his team preparations though -- that's fine. He just wants the press to leave his mom in peace.

But the media aren't camping out on Mama Klinsmann's doorstep. Quite the opposite -- they're loyal customers in her shop. The Klinsmann family runs a chichi bakery in the Stuttgart suburb of Botnang and since World Cup fever got under way, members of the press have made a daily pilgrimage to "Bäckerei Klinsmann" to find out what Mummy Martha, brother Horst and sister-in-law Barbara Klinsmann have to say.

While munching on a pretzel or devouring a croissant journalists have been peppering members of the Klinsmann family with questions on the national team, tactics and trainer -- in fact anything vaguely World Cup-related. The local Stuttgart newspaper even has a daily column devoted to the bakery and its famous family.

But apparently service is suffering as a result. Those bread rolls don't bake themselves you see. Jürgen has had enough and yesterday released a statement.

"Since the beginning of the World Cup the media circus at the "Bäckerei Klinsmann" has got bigger and bigger…. It has now reached the point where my family feels harrassed."

"Therefore, as a friendly hint on behalf of all members of the family, media representatives should -- starting now -- please refrain from further visits to the Bäckerei Klinsmann and requests for interviews," the statement read.

But perhaps we shouldn't feel too sorry for the Klinsmann Klan. After all, Klinsmann's own Web site features a page devoted to the bakery -- no doubt so that all of his fans can pay a visit to "Bäckerei Klinsmann" and part with a few euros in the process. And, the daily invasion of hungry journalists can't have been too bad for trade either. The whole story furore sounds a bit half-baked don't you think?

-- Chris Bryant, 2:10 p.m. CET

Ghanaian "Mossad Agent" Apologizes for Flag Waving

In one of the most bizarre moments of the World Cup so far, Ghanaian defender John Pantsil pulled out an Israeli flag on Saturday to celebrate one of his team's goals against the Czech Republic. The reaction was one of bafflement, delight or outrage, depending on where you come from.

Pantsil plays for Israeli club Hapoel Tel Aviv and apparently wanted to thank those fans who had travelled from Israel to support his team. But the Ghanaian Football Association has since issued an apology after the flag waving stunt provoked a storm of hyperbole in the press, particularly in the Arab world. In a statement, Randy Abbey, spokesman for the Ghanaian FA said, "He's unaware of international politics. We apologize to anybody who was offended ... He did not act out of malice for the Arab people or in support of Israel. He was naïve ... we don't need to punish him."

The Ghanaian FA might think that's the end of the matter, but sectors of the Arab media disagree. The commentator on the Arab satellite channel broadcasting live coverage of the Ghana vs. Czech Republic game was forced to cut short his "gooooaaaaal" exclamation when Ghana scored and Pantsil produced his flag to ask," What are you doing, man?" In a blatantly anti-Semitic statement the Egyptian Al-Ahram daily newspaper featured an article by Hassan el-Mestekawi which suggested many Ghanaians had passed through training camps run by an Israeli coach who "discovered the treasure of African talent, and abused the poverty of the continent’s children" to sell the players on to European clubs for profit. Other papers implied Pantsil was a Mossad agent bribed to wave the flag in support of Israel on the same day Iran was playing in Germany. Apparently Pantsil had hidden the flag in his sock prior to the game.

But, Israel's Sports Minister Ofir Pines-Paz did not share these hostile sentiments and praised Pantsil for his kindly action. "We have an Israeli at the World Cup. Pantsil's gesture has warmed our hearts and many Israelis have now become supporters of Ghana," he said.

-- Chris Bryant, 3:00 p.m. CET

The View from Berlin's Fan Mile