|
|
 |
You are > Home > Rimet’s cup is still cheering
|
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Rimet’s cup is still cheering
BY FINBARR SLATTERY
THE World Cup seems to have given this world we live in one of the biggest boosts it has ever received.
Wars and rumours of war and killings of all sorts seem to have been put aside while it was in progress.
The people on Earth seem to have got a shot in the arm, so to speak, and we all needed it badly. Great to see the main topic of conversation being a football match for a change and I think this week a salute to the person who got this great sporting event underway is in order.
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) runs world football.
It was formed in 1904 by Jules Rimet, who was FIFA’s President for 35 years and who, in 1930, organised the first World Cup in Uruguay. He was a French lawyer and a devout Catholic. He did not play the game himself but he believed in the potential for good on the horizon.
By all accounts, he envisaged a new age of chivalry in which friendly competition and fair play would bind countries together and how right he was. It has been right there before our eyes for the past month.
Jules Rimet had also visions for the professional game as he felt this would bring the working class into the football family and how right he was on that score is borne out now by the background of the many players taking part.
Jules Rimet was born in Toulet, France, in 1871 and became a lawyer. He moved to Paris in 1885 and founded the Red Star Club of Paris. He was its first president and in 1910 he became president of the French Football League. When the French Football Federation was created in 1919 he became its first president, a post he occupied until 1949.
He was also president of the French National Sports Committee from 1932 to 1947. Together with representatives of Holland, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain and Italy he formed FIFA and was elected its president in 1921. During his 35 years service in that capacity, he became the best known administrator in world football.
Rimet was the promoter of the World Cup competition and after World War II it was decided to restart the tournament with countries competing from all over the world.
When he started the World Cup there were 20 members. When he left in 1955 there were 85. In 1990 there were 160 and now I expect the whole world is involved.
Rimet persuaded FIFA to choose Uruguay as the venue for the first World Cup in 1930. He also provided the 30.5cm, 3.6kg, solid gold statue, sculpted by Abel Lafleur, now known as the Jules Rimet trophy, which is presented to the winners.
So there you have it, a look at the man who got the World Cup underway. It always amazes me how a person comes along to launch a winner. Jules Rimet was the man who got FIFA underway and the countries of the world are all the better for his vision in starting off this great competition.
Main News Page |
Previous Page
|
|
|
|
