Steffi Jones took office at the start of the year as President of the Organising Committee (OC) for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2011, whose offices in Frankfurt-am-Main were officially opened on Friday. It has been a real career change for the 111-time international, FIFA Women's World Cup winner (2003) and triple European Championship winner (1997, 2001 and 2005), who will also be altering her style and demeanour for her new job.

The 35-year-old from Frankfurt will be staying true to her principles, however. The daughter of a US soldier and a German mother has always set great store by integration, social commitment and the furthering of girls' and women's football, both for sporting and socio-political reasons. Her credo as head of the OC will be all about working together.

FIFA.com: Today sees the official opening of the OC offices for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2011. What will your main message be at this juncture?
SteffiJones: Well obviously I will be referring to our four main overriding aims. Increasing the importance of women's and girls' football, improving the sport's powers of integration and also organising a wonderful World Cup tournament during which we will again be showing ourselves and our country to be fun, open-minded and welcoming. And then fourthly, there will be no financial gain from the tournament - it will serve the public good and bring football's regional structures in Germany to the fore. At the event, I will also be underlining the fact that we are ready to give it 100 per cent, that the OC team is well set for the early stages of the project and that I am looking forward to introducing those who will be working with me closely.

You have been working as OC President since the beginning of January. How have the first few weeks been going?
I've been going through the initial learning processes, and I realised that the meetings I've been attending up until now can easily last up to three hours, even though they were only scheduled for one. I noticed that I have to take a lot on since I'm not playing a typical representative's role but actually trying to play a part in the whole organisation. I'm really looking forward to that aspect. The next three-and-a-half years are going to be exciting, and I can already say for certain that there will be some great cooperation. And even though we will be working very seriously, we're also going to have a lot of fun.

So you are already well on the way to changing your career from footballer to head of the OC?
That's right. It's a change-over for me. I'm not Steffi the footballer any more, I'm in a job now where I have to have some distance and respect the formalities that come with the position. I need to grow into the role while still remaining true to myself, but it won't be too tough.

What will your main tasks be over the coming weeks?
We've already started seeking out and having initial meetings with national partners and sponsors. We're already working on creating the World Cup logo and the slogan and once we know how many teams will be taking part in the final phase of the World Cup, we will have to determine the host cities and venues, which will be a tough decision judging by the high quality of the candidates - 12 in total. Those are the main tasks for the next few weeks and months. Campaigns and initiatives will have to be launched and we need to put together an ambassadorial team with famous female players who will be in charge of building up the anticipation for the World Cup throughout the country.

The OC for the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ had more than five years to prepare for their tournament. Will the three-and-a-half years that you and your team have be enough?
It will be enough for the simple reason that we can build on the fantastic 2006 World Cup and all of the experiences we took from that, some not so good but most of them positive. Many of those involved in 2006 are with us again here. Added to this is that the 2011 World Cup will be somewhat smaller and will have a different dimension. We're not assuming that everything will take care of itself for this World Cup though, but the OC won't have to start from scratch.

The 2011 Women's World Cup cannot and should not be a mere copy of Germany 2006 but instead clearly set itself apart from the men's tournament. How will you manage that?
With an incredible sense of belonging. This is already one of the characteristics of the women's and girls' game. A sense of belonging that also carries a message of integration that we definitely want to include. This sense of belonging, this cooperation in all its variety and glory will be a real part of the fun, the euphoria and the passion which will all contribute to the visual image of this World Cup to a great extent. At the 2006 World Cup, the many women and girls who were there had a calming presence on the men who occasionally got too aggressive and threatened to get out of control. At a Women's World Cup, the fans are even more family-orientated and that will also be the case in 2011.

As well as aiming to organise a successful tournament, you are also looking to increase the importance of women's football in a sustainable way on a national and international basis. DFB President Dr Theo Zwanziger is hoping that your love of football will help to strengthen and accelerate the sport's powers of integration. Can the 35-year-old head of the OC hope to meet these job specifications?
It won't be difficult for me since I have already been living up to this challenge all of my life. It is part of my principles to stand up for other people and to get involved in social issues. I think that people take it from me as well since I'm always genuine, and that means I can get a lot of people involved in what we're doing.

Since you were appointed OC president you have often been mentioned in the same breath or compared with Franz Beckenbauer. Is that a privilege or a pressure for you?
It is a great, great honour. It's very flattering for me, regardless of whether my footballing career is being compared with his or whether it is in my capacity with the OC. It can only be positive.

How are your personality and your OC role different from those of Franz Beckenbauer?
Franz Beckenbauer worked in an honorary capacity while for me, it will be my sole occupation. The main thing is that right from the beginning, his incredibly high profile meant that he could operate on a level that I have to aspire to. Whenever he gave a speech to sponsors he was an immediate success because that was Franz Beckenbauer who had just walked through the door. I need to use my own way and my different personality to achieve the best that I can, but I don't think that this is a bad thing. My feminine intuition will help me with this. And I'm obviously grateful for any tips he can give me and I'll take them all to heart.

Do you already know when you and Beckenbauer will be able to get together for an initial exchange of ideas?
This Friday I hope. It would be great for me if he could come along, put his arm around my shoulder and say: "Steffi, all the best, you're on the right track already." That's how I look to him.

How important for your role as OC president was the time you spent in 2002 and 2003 playing for Washington in the USA?
Those were two very, very good years, and not just from a sporting perspective. They also taught me a lot since the Americans put more importance in the team over the individual, and that's something I agree with. I am and always have been a team player. I was as a footballer and I am as OC president.

Perfecting your English there as well will be an advantage to you as head of the OC in your dealings with FIFA...
It is a real help that I am bilingual. As a child I spoke almost nothing but English. When I got to kindergarten I then had to start speaking German, which I really railed against. At some point they said that they would stop giving me anything to eat or drink so I had to speak German, as I didn't want to starve! And then all of a sudden I was only speaking German and I lost a lot of my English. It's often the way when you're very young - you learn faster but you also forget things more quickly. But I'm bilingual now and want to learn a third language as well, Spanish.

FIFA's next important decision will be regarding the number of teams taking part. Are you in favour of 24 teams or 16 as there were at the last World Cup?
Perhaps there is a happy medium, since increasing the number of participating nations could be useful in terms of promoting women's football internationally. FIFA of course need to keep things in proportion when they make their decision to make sure that there isn't too much of a gap between the top teams and the bottom ones at a World Cup.

The number of host cities and venues for the 2011 World Cup also depends on this decision. What is the OC's basic line of approach regarding this matter?
We want a fair, country-wide solution with a regionally balanced distribution right across Germany.

Germany's men's internationals always play to packed stadiums and this is now getting to be the case for the women's team. How can the 2011 World Cup achieve similar success to 2006 when all 64 World Cup matches were sold out?
This will also be the case in 2011. Back in 2001 for the Women's European Championship in Germany almost all matches were sold out. It won't be a handicap for 2011 that there will be fewer fans travelling from abroad than there were in 2006. Germany is a footballing nation and a multicultural one as well, and the fans will be looking forward to watching matches involving other countries as well. They'll want to play a full part in the incredible overall experience of this World Cup.

In the run-up to the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, will you follow in the footsteps of Franz Beckenbauer whose visits and personal welcomes to all of the participating nations in the World Cup was seen around the world as a diplomatic tour de force?
That will definitely be a part of our host concept. What I might also do is visit the countries which are taking part in qualifying but who don't make it through at the end of the day. This means that I will be beginning my "Welcome Visits" earlier and not just restricting them to the World Cup participants.

The media response since your appointment as OC president on 11 November 2007 has been incredibly positive. Are you surprised that you are so widely accepted as the public face of the 2011 World Cup?
I was already a little daunted about what the public reaction would be, since I didn't know how people would take to hearing "Steffi Jones, OC president". It's no small matter. Being student representative or captain of a team is already an honour, but to tell you the truth, I was a little nervous before accepting this challenge. But the DFB president really encouraged me, he just said: "Go for it!" At the press conference I even surprised myself at how focused I was and how well I got my points across. That was the first step and it convinced the media that I am the right person for the job.