People walk in the famous red light district 'Reeperbahn' in the northern German town of Hamburg.The combination of riveting World Cup soccer matches and crowds of beer-swilling males means hefty profits for Germany's sex industry, which deploys an army of prostitutes to satisfy the needs of libidinous fans. Some 1 million foreign visitors  flood into Germany to watch the 2006 World Cup and many in the horizontal economy expect large numbers of male spectators to wind down after a match in the arms of a prostitute or in the red light districts of the 12 host cities. [filephoto]

While some larger red-light establishments in host cities have seen their cash tills ringing, a lot of prostitutes say the anticipated boost for Germany's liberal sex industry has failed to materialise.

"The pent-up sexual demand of horny fans from around the world which has been widely anticipated has not materialised at all," said Karolina Leppert, president of Germany's association for sexual service providers BSD.

"Business is pretty dead, even the regulars stay away because of all the crowds and the hype," said Leppert, who has been working as a dominatrix in Berlin for eight years.

More than a million foreign soccer fans are expected to visit Germany during the four-week tournament, many of them from nations where prostitution is illegal, like the U.S. or Sweden.

In Germany, where it is legal and workers can join unions, get health insurance or a pension plan, expectations have been high that fans would visit prostitutes after a match.

But already facing a steep bill for their World Cup trip, male fans are opting to spend time with fellow fans in host cities' open-air party venues.

"When they come they don't want to pay entrance, they want cheap drinks and that doesn't work for us," Antonio, working in a Berlin champagne bar, said declining to give his full name.

Antonio said his city centre bar had seen only a 10 percent increase in customers, despite being just minutes walk away from the Brandenburg Gate, a Berlin landmark where some 700,000 fans watched Germany beat Ecuador on Tuesday on huge outdoor screens.

WINNERS AND LOSERS

Surveys put the number of those working in full or part-time prostitution in Germany at 400,000. Many expected more women from abroad to head to Germany for the occasion.

Yet police in most host cities, like Frankfurt, said the number of sex workers had hardly changed. Only Munich police saw an increase and said 800 women now worked in legal brothels.

"This is a 60 percent rise, but the expected run from customers hasn't happened yet," said a Munich police spokesman.

Only high-profile brothels said their business was humming.

"The first few days have been a bit slow, but it has really picked up now," said a spokesman for Pascha in Cologne, Europe's largest brothel, declining to give his name. "We are working at 100 percent capacity and could do more if we had more space."

Some 200 woman work on seven floors in saunas, private rooms and bars, and are busy around the clock -- a workload normally seen on busy weekends or big trade fairs, said the spokesman.

"For us, soccer and sex go very well together," he said. "In soccer there is always a winner and a loser. One needs a party, the other one needs consolation, and we can offer both."