Just as the Germans have advanced to the Round of 16 in this year's World Cup, the team will hopefully like to have a revered football icon to cheer them on the sidelines,.
On Friday, Reuters reported that FIFA has been said to have lifted the 90-day provisional ban on World Cup-winning player and coach Franz Beckenbauer, who has been imposed with such punishment for his alleged failure to cooperate with lead investigator Michael Garcia on a probe regarding the bribery allegations linked to the 2022 winning Qatar World Cup bid.
Beckenbauer's links to the Qatar bid was for a fact that he served as a member of the FIFA executive committee, which in 2010 had controversially awarded the hosting rights to the Gulf nation. At the time of the ban, FIFA said that it has sent Beckenbauer repeated requests for information to aid the world soccer body with the probe. The football legend has since argued that he had not rejected FIFA's requests, and had merely asked them to provide him a translated version of the questions as he is not familiar with "legalese English."
However, a Twitter post on June 19 by Beckenbauer's manager Marcus Höfl disclosed that his client had complied with FIFA's original request and have provided the information required of him.
"For your information: The FIFA ethics commission this afternoon received the answers of Franz Beckenbauer to all their questions via mail and fax," Höfl wrote.
The German Football Association has since come to Beckenbauer's defense, and said that FIFA has overreacted when they decided to ban such a high-profile figure at the beginning of a sporting event he has helped make history.
In an emailed statement to Reuters, DFB president Niersbach said, "It was completely incomprehensible to me why such a ban was issued on the second day of a World Cup. Perhaps Franz made a formal mistake but still that's not the proper way to treat someone who has done so much for football all around the world."
If there's one thing to convince Beckenbauer to have a change of heart with his initial statement of not having plans to come to Brazil any longer for the tournament, Germany's fighting chance to reclaim this year's World Cup could do the trick.
