Man who invented World Cup was impressed by ‘horrors of First World War trenches’
“Jules Rimet still gleaming,” the Lightning Seeds sing in the footie anthem Three Lions. Although Skinner and Baddiel are referring to the World Cup trophy, they are actually name dropping the son of a French grocery shop owner.
Jules Rimet never kicked a football in anger, but still came to invent a competition that transformed the sport into the international business and obsession we know today. Born in Haute Saone in eastern France in 1876, Rimet came from humble beginnings – but it was from his honest upbringing where his ideas about how sport should reach out to all social classes came from.
In 1897, aged just 24, Rimet founded a sports club in the Paris suburbs called Red Star, which offered a number of activities and did not refuse members on the grounds of class. Crucially – football was one of the sports Rimet chose to be part of the club.
It was the horrors that Rimet witnessed first hand while fighting in World War One which really shaped his vision for the World Cup.
Rimet served as an infantry officer in the French Army throughout World War I. Despite being 41 years old with a wife and three young children, he volunteered for active service on the frontline.
Rimet enlisted in the military on 4 August 1914 – the precise day after France entered the war. At 41, he was older than most frontline soldiers but decided to head to the trenches regardless.
Rimet fought on the Western Front for the entirety of the conflict and remained in active combat roles in the autumn of 1918, receiving the Croix de Guerre for his heroic service under fire.
The Frenchman survived the horrific conflict, but his experiences in the muddy trenches fuelled his subsequent lifelong quest for international peace through sport. He believed that sport could “replace war”.
Following the war, in 1919, Rimet took on the role of the first president of the Fédération Française de Football (FFF) and, two years later, became the leader of the re-established global body, FIFA. He held the presidency for 33 years, until 1954, expanding the number of member countries from a mere dozen to 85.
He once again championed the concept of a global football tournament but faced fierce opposition from the Football Association in England. The FA had departed FIFA after the war, partly due to the English game not wanting to mingle with former foes, and partly because there was a presumption that the “foreign” game was weaker and, therefore, insignificant.
Rimet pressed on regardless. “My grandfather was a gentle man but also a tough one,” said Yves Rimet. “He was a lawyer. He was difficult to argue with because he never gave up.
“He got on with the English officials individually but found them impossible as an institution. But then, that is the story of Anglo-French relations, isn’t it?” In 1928, FIFA decided to proceed with the inaugural World Cup competition.
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