Frankfurt - German football has enjoyed a successful year despite the lost Euro 2008 final and some problems off the field, German football federation (DFB) supremo Theo Zwanziger said on Monday.

"We have had great sports highlights," said Zwanziger.

The men's national team reached the Euro 2008 final in Vienna which it lost to 1-0 to Spain. Joachim Loew's team then started the qualifying round for the 2010 World Cup with three wins and a draw, while the women's team won Olympic bronze in Beijing and qualified for the 2009 European championship.

"In becoming European vice-champions we were the only team to be among the final four at the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008," said Zwanziger.

Zwanziger also praised the men's under-19 team for a European championship title and said that the DFB, the world's largest single sports federation, had passed the mark of 6.5 million members, more than one million of them women.

On the downside in 2008 were quarrels of captain Michael Ballack with Loew and national team manager Oliver Bierhoff, Kevin Kuranyi quitting the national team overnight and a dispute of the DFB with Germany's cartel body over TV right sales. (dpa)