Jules Rimet: FIFA’s greatest president, 100 years on
March1, 2021 is a significant
anniversary for football in every
corner of the globe, as it marks
years since French lawyerJules Rimet
formally began his record 33-year
reign as FIFA president.
Rimet was 47 when he took office,
two years after becoming president
of the French Football Federation.
By the time he retired in1954, FIFA’s
membership had risen from12 to 85;
it now stands at 211. Beyond expansion
of the game’s popularity, Rimet’s
historic legacy is launching the World
Cup, whose status in popular culture
transcends all of sport. He was not
only FIFA’s longest-serving president,
but also by far the greatest.
Up to a point he was at one
with fellow Frenchman Pierre de
Coubertin, the creator of the modern
Olympics. Both men recognised the
evolution in England of “muscular
Christianity” – the power of sport to
generate not only physical but also
moral and societal well-being.
Application was the point at which
the two men’s visions diverged.
Firstly, De Coubertin had a head
start. He was ten years older than
Rimet, better connected and had
been a pioneer of the all-embracing
Union of French Athletic Sports
Societies. His Olympic revival bore
fruit in Athens in1896, eight years
before even the founding of FIFA.
Secondly, the older man – formally
Charles Pierre de Fredy, Baron deCoubertin – came from aristocracy.
He considered exemplary leadership
in sport the natural duty of the officer
classes. In practice, a strict amateur
ethos: sport for its own sake, not
financial gain.
Rimet, on the other hand, believed
that sport should be open to all and in
every manner. As he said: “If the man
who labours in a Peugeot factory all
week can earn something extra tosupport his family then he should
havetherighttodoso.”Hebelieved
that international sport could unite
the world, but to do so, it had to be
professional.
His remarkable journey began on
October 24,1873, in the village of
Theuley-les-Lavoncourt, eastern
France. At the age of11, he moved
to Paris.
Rimet was a star pupil and a
devout Roman Catholic whose social
and religious background coloured his
outlook on the world. While studying
to enter law he helped create the
Red Star club to open sporting
opportunity to anyone and everyone.
Rimet himself was no star player. He
practised gymnastics, athletics andfencing but incorporated football into
the Red Star network because of its
increasing popularity.
This brought him to a crossroads.
De Coubertin’s USFSA supported
the development of rugby but not
association football because the
English were perceived as having
poisoned it with professionalism.
In1907 the USFSA quit FIFA over
its open-minded approach to theTHEWORLD THIS MONTH
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paid game. Rimet subsequently quit
the USFSA to set up a French football
league to bring France back into FIFA.
This raised his profile before the
onset of World War I, where his
service brought him recognition of a
vastly different sort with three awards
of theCroix de Guerre(War Cross).
Rimet was the obvious choice as
president of the French Football
Federation on the resumption of
sporting activity in1919. A year later
he helped organise football at the
Antwerp Olympics. At the time, FIFA
needed a new president following the
death of Englishman Daniel Woolfall in- In the absence of anyone else,
Rimet was elected.
The first decade tested all his
leadership and diplomacy. The initial
challenge was the withdrawal of the
four British home nations in1920, in
opposition to membership applications
from wartime enemies Germany,
Austria and Hungary. Ultimately a
fragile peace was achieved, but it did
not last. Four years later, the British
quartet quit in a huff over the issue of
broken-time payments, which allowed
Olympic competitors to be paid in
order to make up for lost earnings
while attending the Games. The British
objected to this as poisoning the
Olympics’ amateur ethos.
The schism engendered by the
ABOVE: FIFA
president...
Rimet in
ABOVE RIGHT: Still
gleaming...theJules
Rimet trophy (left)
alongside the later
redesigned FIFA
World Cup trophyRimet was not only FIFA’s longest-serving
president, but also by far the greatest