Big farewell to Uwe Seeler in his “second living room” Volksparkstadion: The official funeral service for Hamburg’s greatest soccer idol will take place on August 10 (2:00 p.m.) in the World Cup arena from 1974 and 2006. This was announced by the Senate of the Hanseatic city.
The honorary captain of the German national soccer team died last Thursday at the age of 85. The memorial event in the Volkspark is open to the public, the stadium gates will be opened from 1 p.m. Further details are not yet known.
The organization of the celebration will be coordinated between the Seelers family, the German Football Association (DFB) and Hamburger SV, to which the center forward has remained loyal all his life. Irrespective of this, numerous prominent visitors are expected in the northern German metropolis.
Since the former top striker was awarded honorary citizenship in his native town in 2003, a funeral service in Hamburg’s Michel would have been possible at the family’s request. Further honors for “Us Uwe” are already being prepared.
HSV investor Klaus-Michael Kühne, who currently holds the naming rights to the Volksparkstadion, has already discussed renaming it to the Uwe-Seeler-Stadion. It would also be conceivable to rename the east stand, from which the former top scorer had followed HSV games for decades.
There are also plans to name a street near the stadium after the four-time World Cup participant. Stadionstraße and Sylvesterallee between the stadium and the Barclay Arena would be suitable. In this case, however, a regulation applies in Hamburg, according to which such a renaming must be postponed until at least two years after the death of the person to be honored.