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Jules Rimet: FIFA’s Missionary President

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Abstract

Football representatives such as Jules Rimet can surely be compared to senior civil servants, administrators and statesmen, in that their work is not directly linked to political changes and their actions extend over long periods of time. Through his long-term commitment to the world of sport, Jules Rimet became a ‘senior sports administrator’. It is largely due to Jules Rimet’s work over more than three decades between the early 1920s and the mid-1950s that football is currently the world’s most popular sport and the World Cup the greatest international sporting event. Although no single individual, even if he is the most powerful man of his time, can be considered a lone actor, and although his actions have to be considered within a larger project, Jules Rimet was undoubtedly the most important figure in international football during the first half of the twentieth century. As the elected president of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) from 1921 to 1954 it was under Rimet’s leadership that the game first became truly global, that a professional elite developed and that the first World Cups were held. Rimet also played a major role in securing FIFA’s autonomy from supervision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In this contribution, our ambition is to highlight several aspects of Rimet’s career, considering him as a true football entrepreneur, and to fill some of the gaps in his historiography, which remains either simply narrative or only hagiographic. Thus, our analyses are based on a large number of documents, mainly from FIFA (congresses, executive committee minutes, correspondence), but also from the Association Suisse de Football (ASF), the Fédération Française de Football Association (FFFA) and the Football Association (FA). Because football archives for the interwar period are incomplete, we also searched the archives of several newspapers in France, Switzerland and Germany. Finally, we also consulted the French Légion d’Honneur’s personal file on Jules Rimet, which is available online.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Bourdieu, P. (1989) La Noblesse d’état. Grandes écoles et esprit de corps, Paris: Minuit; Feiertag, O. (1995) Wilfrid Baumgartner, les finances de l’État et l’économie de la nation (1902–1978): un grand commis à la croisée des pouvoirs. History doctoral thesis, Université Paris—X Nanterre.

  2. 2.

    Tomlinson A.; Sugden, J. (1998) FIFA and the Contest for World Football: Who Rules the Peoples’ Game? Cambridge: Polity Press; Tomlinson, A. (2000) “FIFA and the Men Who Made It” Soccer and Society 1(1): 55–71.

  3. 3.

    Carpentier, F. (2005) “Le conflit entre le CIO et la FIFA dans l’entre-deux-guerres. Les Jeux olympiques contre la Coupe du monde de football” STAPS 68(2): 25–39.

  4. 4.

    Lasne, L. (2008) Jules Rimet: la foi dans le football, Saint-Cloud: Le tiers livre.

  5. 5.

    Guillain, J.-Y. (1998) La Coupe du monde de football: l’œuvre de Jules Rimet, Paris: Amphora.

  6. 6.

    This chapter is a revised version of: Grégory Quin, Philippe Vonnard (2014) “Jules Rimet: un missionnaire du football” Les grands dirigeants du sport. 23 portraits et stratégies de management (Ed. E. Bayle) De Boeck: Brussels: 25–43.

  7. 7.

    Most of these documents were originally obtained for two earlier studies carried out by the authors: The first—“Une première élite du football européen (1904–1956), ou les prémices d’un champ footballistique européen” “- was carried out by Grégory Quin under the 2011–2012 UEFA Research Grant Programme”. The second was Philippe Vonnard’s PhD thesis, “Genèse du football européen. De la FIFA à l’UEFA (1930–1960)”, defended at the University of Lausanne in December 2016.

  8. 8.

    http://www.culture.gouv.fr/documentation/leonore/.

  9. 9.

    Guillain, La Coupe du monde: 15.

  10. 10.

    Sorez, J. (2013) Le football dans Paris et ses banlieues (de la fin du XIXe siècle à 1940): un sport devenu spectacle, Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.

  11. 11.

    Pfeil, U. (ed.) (2010) Football et identité en France et en Allemagne, Villeneuve-d’Ascq: Presses universitaires du Septentrion: 51.

  12. 12.

    Hilaire, Y.-M. (2006) “1900–1945. L’ancrage des ideologies” Histoire des droites (Ed. J.-F. Sirinelli) Paris: Gallimard: 519–565.

  13. 13.

    Dietschy, P. (2005) “La Guerre ou le ‘grand match’: le sport, entre représentation de la violence et expérience combattante” La Grande Guerre: pratiques et expériences (Eds. R. Cazals, E. Picard, D. Rolland) Toulouse: Privat: 45–54.

  14. 14.

    French National Archives, Documents “Léonore”, Documents relating to the attribution of the Legion d’Honneur to Mr. Jules Rimet (2nd August 1949): 2.

  15. 15.

    Ibid.: 4.

  16. 16.

    Guillain, La Coupe du monde: 16.

  17. 17.

    L’Auto, 17 November 1927.

  18. 18.

    Rimet, J. (1954) Histoire merveilleuse de la Coupe du monde, Paris: Union européenne d’Éditions: 25.

  19. 19.

    Wahl, A. (1989) Les archives du football. Sport et société en France (1880–1980), Paris: Gallimard.

  20. 20.

    Holt, R. (1998) “Sport, the French and the Third Republic” Modern and Contemporary France 6(3): 289–299.

  21. 21.

    FIFA Archives, Minutes of the 3rd FIFA congress, 1906.

  22. 22.

    FIFA Archives, Minutes of the 5th FIFA congress, 1908.

  23. 23.

    Groeninger, F. (2004) Sport, religion et nation. La Fédération des patronages de France d’une guerre mondiale à l’autre, Paris: L’Harmattan.

  24. 24.

    FIFA Archives, Minutes of the 11th FIFA congress, 1914.

  25. 25.

    Mason, T. (2006) “Le football dans l’armée britannique pendant la Première Guerre mondiale” Histoire et Sociétés 18–19: 62–75; Dietchy, P. (2007) “1918–1920, des tranchées au stade. Quelques éclairages sur la sortie de la guerre des sportifs français et des fédérations de football européennes” Histoire@Politique. Politique, culture, société 3 (published online).

  26. 26.

    Lanfranchi, P.; Wahl, A. (1998) “La professionnalisation du football en France (1920–1939)” Modern & Contemporary France 6(3): 313–325.

  27. 27.

    Slimani, H. (2000) La professionnalisation du football français: un modèle de dénégation, Sociology doctoral thesis, Université de Nantes: 109.

  28. 28.

    Slimani, La professionnalisation du football français: 144.

  29. 29.

    Clastres, P.; Dietschy, P. (2006) Sport, société et culture. Du XIXe siècle à nos jour, Paris: Hachette.

  30. 30.

    Match, 8 November 1932.

  31. 31.

    Dietschy, P. (2011) “French Sport: Caught between Universalism and Exceptionalism” European Review 19(4): 509–525.

  32. 32.

    Before 1930 and its move to Zurich, FIFA did not keep many documents about its own governance.

  33. 33.

    Rimet, J. (1954) Histoire merveilleuse de la Coupe du monde: 25.

  34. 34.

    Mourat, A. (2006) “Le tournoi olympique de football: une propédeutique à la Coupe du monde? (1896–1928)” Aspects de l’histoire de la coupe du monde de football (Ed. A. Wahl) Metz: Université de Metz: 9–21.

  35. 35.

    FIFA Archives, Minutes of the 12th FIFA congress, 1923.

  36. 36.

    Beck, P. J. (2000) “Going to War, Peaceful Co-existence or Virtual Membership. British Football and FIFA, 1928–1946” The International Journal of the History of Sport 20(1): 113–134.

  37. 37.

    France football, 4 January 1924.

  38. 38.

    FIFA Archives, Minutes of the 13th FIFA congress, 1924 [translated from the French].

  39. 39.

    Wahlig, H. (2008) “Dr Ivo Schricker: Ein Deutscher in Diensten des Welt- fussballs” Hakenkreuz und rundes Leder. Fussball im Nationalsozialismus (Eds. L. Peiffer, D. Schulze-Marmeling) Göttingen: verlag die Werkstatt: 197–206.

  40. 40.

    FIFA Archives, Executive Committee, Minutes from 14 March 1937.

  41. 41.

    FIFA Archives, 1933 Status Report, p. 35.

  42. 42.

    Quin, G.; Vonnard, P. (2011) “‘Par delà le Gothard’. Les matches internationaux Italie-Suisse et la consolidation des champs footballistiques italien et suisse dans l’entre-deux-guerres” Diacronie. Studi di Storia Contemporanea 5: 1–15.

  43. 43.

    Martin, S. (2004) Football under Fascism. The National Game under Mussolini, Oxford: Berg.

  44. 44.

    Vonnard, P.; Quin, G. (2012) “Élément pour une histoire de la mise en place du professionnalisme dans le football suisse: processus, résistances et ambiguities” Revue Suisse d’Histoire 62(1): 70–85.

  45. 45.

    Lanfranchi, P.; Wahl, A. (1998) “La professionnalisation du football…”.

  46. 46.

    Davies, D. J. (2000) “British Football with a Brazilian Beat: The Early History of a National Pastime (1894–1933)” English-speaking Communities in Latin America (Ed. O. Marshall) London: Institute of Latin American Studies: 261–284.

  47. 47.

    Wahl, A. (1998) “Un professionnalisme de résignation en France” Sociétés et Représentations 7: 67–75.

  48. 48.

    Carpentier, “Le conflit entre le CIO et la FIFA”.

  49. 49.

    Match, 28 February 1933.

  50. 50.

    Dietchy, P.; Gastaud, Y.; Mourlane S. (2006) Histoire politique des Coupes de monde de football, Paris: Vuibert; Mourat, A. (2008) “Le tournoi olympique de football: une propédeutique à la Coupe du monde? 1896–1928” Aspects de l’histoire de la Coupe du monde de football (Ed. A. Wahl) Metz: Centre Régional Universitaire Lorrain d’Histoire: 9–21; Charroin, P.; Wacquet, A. (2008) “L’Universalisme professionnalisant du football contre l’amateurisme internationaliste olympique” Les paris des jeux olympiques de 1924, Volume 2: Les paris sportifs (Ed. T. Terret) Biarritz: Atlantica: 445–490.

  51. 51.

    Rimet (1954) Histoire merveilleuse de la Coupe du monde: 27.

  52. 52.

    Quin, G. (2013) “La Coupe de l’Europe Centrale (1927–1938), une compétition internationale oubliée?” Stadion 37(2): 285–304.

  53. 53.

    Hafer, A.; Hafer, W. (2008) Hugo Meisl, oder die Erfindung des Modernen Fußballs. Eine Biografie, Göttingen: Verlag die Verkstatt.

  54. 54.

    FIFA Archives, Minutes of the 19th FIFA congress, 1930.

  55. 55.

    Football, 6 August 1931.

  56. 56.

    Der Kicker, 2 November 1926.

  57. 57.

    Eisenberg, C.; Lanfranchi, P.; Mason, T.; Wahl, A. (2004) 100 Years of Football: The FIFA Centennial Book, London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson: 102.

  58. 58.

    Rimet (1954) Histoire merveilleuse de la Coupe du monde: 30.

  59. 59.

    L’Auto, 7 Décembre 1926.

  60. 60.

    FIFA Archives, Status, 1928 status.

  61. 61.

    Rimet (1954) Histoire merveilleuse de la Coupe du monde: 30.

  62. 62.

    Dietschy “French Sport”: 513.

  63. 63.

    Football Association Archives (England), Executive Committee, Report from the English delegates at the 17th FIFA congress, June 1927, p. 2.

  64. 64.

    FIFA Archives, Minutes of the 17th and 18th FIFA congress, 1928 and 1929.

  65. 65.

    FIFA Archives, Minutes of the 17th FIFA congress, 1928.

  66. 66.

    FIFA Archives, Minutes of the 18th FIFA congress, 1929.

  67. 67.

    Ibid.

  68. 68.

    Belgium, Rumania, Yugoslavia and France.

  69. 69.

    Match, 24 June 1930.

  70. 70.

    FIFA Archives, Minutes of the 27th FIFA congress, 1950.

  71. 71.

    Dietschy, P. (2013) “Making Football Global? FIFA, Europe, and the Non-European Football World, 1912–74” Journal of Global History 8: 279–298.

  72. 72.

    For more on the relationship between South America and Europe inside FIFA, see: Vonnard, P., Quin, G. “Did South America foster European football? Transnational Influences on the Continentalisation of FIFA and the Creation of UEFA, 1926–1959” Sport in Society (published online: https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2016.1221208).

  73. 73.

    FIFA Archives, Minutes of the 25th FIFA congress, 1946 [translated from the French].

  74. 74.

    FIFA Archives, Executive Committee, Minutes from the 10, 11 and 12 November 1945.

  75. 75.

    FIFA Archives, Rimet’s correspondence, Letter from Jules Rimet to Ivo Schricker, 10 January 1946.

  76. 76.

    Interview with Pierre Delaunay, 18 September 2012.

  77. 77.

    Wahlig, H. (2010) Ein Tor zur Welt? Göttingen: Verlag die Verkstatt.

  78. 78.

    Between 1935 and 1953, FIFA’s membership increased from 50 countries to more than 80 countries. FIFA Archives, Secretary’s Report, 1954–1955.

  79. 79.

    Vonnard, P. (2012) La Genèse de la Coupe des clubs champions européens. Une histoire du football européen (1920–1960), Neuchâtel: CIES.

  80. 80.

    Kowalski, R.; Porter, D. (1997) “Political Football: Moscow Dynamo in Britain, 1945” International Journal of the History of Sport 14(2): 100–121.

  81. 81.

    Beck “Going to War”.

  82. 82.

    FIFA Archives, Executive Committee, Minutes from the 11 October 1950.

  83. 83.

    Homburg, H. (2007) “Ernst Thommen, die Schweiz und der Weltfussball, 1946–1962” Basler Zeitschrifte für Geschichte und Altertumskunde (107): 69–102.

  84. 84.

    Archives FIFA, Executive Committee, Minutes from the 17 April 1951.

  85. 85.

    Archives FIFA, Minutes of the 2nd extraordinary congress, 1953.

  86. 86.

    FIFA Archives, Minutes of the 29th FIFA congress, 1954.

  87. 87.

    Ibid.

  88. 88.

    IOC Archives, João Havelange’s personal file.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ISCC, Paris, France

    Philippe Vonnard

  2. University of Lausanne | UNIL, Institute of Sports Science, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Grégory Quin

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  1. Philippe Vonnard
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Correspondence to Philippe Vonnard .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut des Sciences du Sport, Université de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Emmanuel Bayle

  2. Institut des Sciences du Sport, Université de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Patrick Clastres

Biography

Biography

1873: Born in Theuley.

1885: Moved to Paris.

1895: Military service.

1897: Foundation of the Red Star Club.

1898: Marriage to Jeanne Peyrègne (they had three children).

1910: Creation of the Ligue de Football Association.

1914: Attended his first FIFA Congress.

1914: Joined the military reserve.

1919: Awarded the Croix de Guerre three times.

1919: President of the FFFA.

1920: President of FIFA.

1930: President of the CNS.

1931: Officer of the Légion d’Honneur.

1949: Resignation as president of the FFFA.

1954: Resignation as president of FIFA.

1955: Honorary president of FIFA.

1956: Died in Paris (23rd October).

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Vonnard, P., Quin, G. (2018). Jules Rimet: FIFA’s Missionary President. In: Bayle, E., Clastres, P. (eds) Global Sport Leaders. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76753-6_4

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