Football’s governing body, FIFA has admonished nations across the world to name at least one stadium after the late Brazilian icon, Edson Arantes do Nascimento who is better known as Pele.
FIFA will ask every country in the world to name a stadium in honour of Pele, the governing body’s president Gianni Infantino has said.
The Brazil great, who won the World Cup three times and scored over 1,000 goals in his career, died on 29 December aged 82 after a battle with cancer.
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Mr Infantino, who was in Brazil for Pelé’s funeral in Sao Paulo, told local reporters: “We’re going to ask every country in the world to name one of their football stadiums with the name of Pelé.”
It is not clear how this proposal will work in practice as few national federations own their own stadia and the ones that do are more likely to name them after local heroes or sponsors.
The only Australian stadium Pelé played in, the Sydney Sports Ground in 1972, has since been demolished. The site is part of the Sydney Football Stadium (Allianz) car park.
He later attended a function at the Sydney Football Stadium constructed in 1988, but that was knocked down to make way for the Allianz Stadium.
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Mr Infantino released a statement on the day of Pelé’s death which began: “For everyone who loves the beautiful game, this is the day we never wanted to come. The day we lost Pelé.”
He described Pelé as an “exemplary sportsman” and added: “Pelé had a magnetic presence and, when you were with him, the rest of the world stopped.
“His life is about more than football. He changed perceptions for the better in Brazil, in South America and across the world. His legacy is impossible to summarise in words.”
