After his time as a coach, Franz Beckenbauer took on responsibility in the club’s executive bodies: as an official at FC Bayern and in German football, he shaped key decisions and became a representative of international standing.
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After his time as a coach, Franz moved into football’s control centers and shaped a new era there.
At FC Bayern, he was elected vice president at the end of 1991, and from 1994 to 2009 he led the club as president. In parallel, after the spin-off of the professional football division, he served as chairman of the supervisory board of FC Bayern München AG from 2002 to 2009 and was later named honorary president. Under his presidency, Bayern grew both athletically and economically into a global brand, crowning the 1990s and 2000s with titles.
One key project of his tenure was the new stadium: Franz was one of the driving forces behind the Allianz Arena. In the citizens’ referendum on October 21, 2001, the people of Munich voted clearly in favor of building in Fröttmaning. This paved the way for a stadium that permanently changed FC Bayern. Today, even the arena’s address, “Franz-Beckenbauer-Platz 5,” commemorates the Kaiser and his iconic shirt number.
Beyond Munich, Franz also shaped German football as vice president of the DFB (1998–2010), as a member of the FIFA Executive Committee (2007–2011), and above all as president of the organizing committee of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. First the frontman of Germany’s successful bid, he then led the organizational side of the tournament — a mammoth task spanning security, infrastructure, marketing, and hospitality, which the Kaiser mastered with his usual ease. He was the face of the World Cup and embodied the new Germany to the world.
In all his roles, Franz combined representation with pragmatism. He opened doors with politicians, associations, and sponsors, mediated conflicts, and made decisions that set the course for the future of both FC Bayern and the DFB.
