After the death of Franz Beckenbauer, there are many demands and wishes that the football icon should be properly honored and that he should continue to be remembered.
The ideas range from a new name for the Munich stadium to a monument in front of it to a dedicated street, a Bavarian state act and the renaming of the DFB Cup. But it is currently a time of mourning, said President Bernd Neuendorf of the German Football Association. He doesn’t want to comment on the proposals in an inflationary way, but there will be measures.
Stadium name and monument
It will be emotional in the evening when Beckenbauer’s heart club FC Bayern meets TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in the first Bundesliga game of the year. After Beckenbauer’s death last Sunday at the age of 78, both teams are wearing mourning ribbons. There will be a minute’s silence for this. Memories of the emperor’s life’s work will provide emotional moments in the sold-out Allianz Arena with 75,000 spectators, which former Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld would soon be called the Franz-Beckenbauer-Arena.
“He helped build FC Bayern’s charisma together with Gerd Müller, Uli Hoeneß, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and a few others. That’s why it would be a good fit if the Allianz Arena were renamed the Franz-Beckenbauer-Arena,” said he 74-year-old in an interview with “t-online.de”. Goalkeeping legend Sepp Maier suggested building a monument to Beckenbauer in front of the stadium. Rummenigge reacted cautiously to the suggestion. “There is an agreement with our long-standing, loyal and very serious partner Allianz, and it must be respected,” said the supervisory board of German record champions FC Bayern Munich to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.
Politicians proposed a national day of remembrance, a Beckenbauer Street or a Beckenbauer Square in Munich. Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) also announced that the Bavarian state government would examine whether it was possible to hold a large act of mourning. Söder (CSU) said he could imagine the state honoring Beckenbauer’s life again. It was announced on Thursday that the large memorial ceremony organized by FC Bayern on January 19th from the Allianz Arena would be broadcast live on ARD.
The idea of Berti Vogts, Beckenbauer’s successor as national coach, to rename the DFB Cup to the Franz Beckenbauer Cup in the future has already received a lot of support. Former national player Ulf Kirsten came up with a new name for the DFB headquarters. That was a “great idea,” said Kirsten. And perhaps easier to achieve than changing a marketed stadium name.
