Football history: Jules Rimet, the man behind the World Cup plan
Jules Rimet's brainchild has come a long way in 96 years. Fourteen teams accepted an invitation to take part in the inaugural tournament in 1930. In 2026, more than half of the 48 squads competing have battled through two years of qualifying games.
Issued on: 08/06/2026 - RFI
Jules Rimet(centre) hands over the trophy bearing his name to the Uruguay captain Obdulio Varela after his side's 2-1 win in the final match of the 1950 World Cup in Brazil. AFP
By: Paul Myers
Before Rimet's plan, the most prestigious international football team prize was handed out at the Olympic Games which was organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Rimet, a founding member of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa) in 1904, wanted his organisation to be the big noise in football.
And after taking up the Fifa presidency in 1921, the 54-year-old Frenchman proposed his World Cup concept at the 17th Fifa congress in Amsterdam in May 1928.
Compatriot Henri Delaunay, who was a Fifa vice-president as well as a top executive with Rimet at the French Football Federation, backed Rimet's resolution "to organise a competition which would be open to the representative teams of all of the affiliated national associations."
Unsurprisingly, the associations in the Americas were up for the cup but their European counterparts were reluctant to send their squads on a three-week voyage across the Atlantic Ocean for a two-week tournament before a three-week trip back home.
Two months before the start of the event, no European teams had registered. Rimet, who had trained as a lawyer, had to twist a few arms in France to persuade his home country to boost the credibility of the competition. The Belgian-born Fifa vice-president Rodolphe Seeldrayers eventually wooed his football association to participate.
Egypt miss World Cup boat
Egypt would have made it 14 teams but their ship from Egypt to Europe was held up by a storm in the Mediterranean and they missed their connecting boat to Uruguay from Marseille.
The 1930 tournament started on 13 July with two games. France took on Mexico at the Estadio Pocitos in Montevideo and a few kilometres to the north, Belgium played the United States at Estadio Parque Central.
Just over two weeks later Uruguay were the champions after beating Argentina 4-2 in the final at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo.
Nearly 69,000 fans packed into the arena to see the 1924 and 1928 Olympic champions maintain their international supremacy and vindicate Rimet's decision to create the tournament.
Fittingly, he handed the cup – named Victory – over to the Uruguay skipper José Nasazzi.
World Cup gains traction
Further proof of the World Cup's popularity came in the 1934 event in Italy.
Thirty two of Fifa's 50 then members wanted to take part in the 16-team competition. To reduce the field, Fifa introduced a qualifying competition that included hosts Italy.
They survived the qualifiers and after winning the competition proper, Rimet was on hand to present the trophy the victorious Italy squad.
And he gave the Italians the trophy again in 1938 after they beat Hungary 4-2 in the final in Colombes just outside Paris.
But 15 months after the showdown, the world was engulfed in war.
Fifa, having relocated in 1932 from Paris to Zurich, Rimet was able to continue the organisation's operations in neutral Switzerland as nations battled for global domination.
Post-war development
The World Cup re-emerged in 1950 with a cup renamed the Jules Rimet trophy in 1946 to honour his 25 years as Fifa president. There was also an incentive: the first nation to win the cup three times would keep it in their trophy cabinet for ever.
In 1950, Rimet handed his namesake cup to Uruguay and he was at the heart of the award ceremony in June 1954 as West Germany won the competition for the first time.
Just after the final, Rimet, who was approaching his 81st birthday, stepped down as Fifa boss after 33 years in charge of the organisation he had helped to establish in his early thirties.
He died on 16 October 1956 a few days after his 83rd birthday in Suresnes on the western outskirts of Paris.
When two-time champions Italy faced Brazil in the World Cup final in 1970 at the Estadio Azteca in Mexcio City – the venue for the opening game of the 2026 tournament – they were not only playing for the title but also the right to keep the cup.
Brazil, who had triumphed in 1958 and 1962, claimed the Jules Rimet trophy and eternal bragging rights after thumping Italy 4-1.
Jules Rimet's brainchild has come a long way in 96 years. Fourteen teams accepted an invitation to take part in the inaugural tournament in 1930. In 2026, more than half of the 48 squads competing have battled through two years of qualifying games.
Issued on: 08/06/2026 - RFI
Jules Rimet(centre) hands over the trophy bearing his name to the Uruguay captain Obdulio Varela after his side's 2-1 win in the final match of the 1950 World Cup in Brazil. AFPBy: Paul Myers
Before Rimet's plan, the most prestigious international football team prize was handed out at the Olympic Games which was organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Rimet, a founding member of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa) in 1904, wanted his organisation to be the big noise in football.
And after taking up the Fifa presidency in 1921, the 54-year-old Frenchman proposed his World Cup concept at the 17th Fifa congress in Amsterdam in May 1928.
Compatriot Henri Delaunay, who was a Fifa vice-president as well as a top executive with Rimet at the French Football Federation, backed Rimet's resolution "to organise a competition which would be open to the representative teams of all of the affiliated national associations."
Unsurprisingly, the associations in the Americas were up for the cup but their European counterparts were reluctant to send their squads on a three-week voyage across the Atlantic Ocean for a two-week tournament before a three-week trip back home.
Two months before the start of the event, no European teams had registered. Rimet, who had trained as a lawyer, had to twist a few arms in France to persuade his home country to boost the credibility of the competition. The Belgian-born Fifa vice-president Rodolphe Seeldrayers eventually wooed his football association to participate.
Egypt miss World Cup boat
Egypt would have made it 14 teams but their ship from Egypt to Europe was held up by a storm in the Mediterranean and they missed their connecting boat to Uruguay from Marseille.
The 1930 tournament started on 13 July with two games. France took on Mexico at the Estadio Pocitos in Montevideo and a few kilometres to the north, Belgium played the United States at Estadio Parque Central.
Just over two weeks later Uruguay were the champions after beating Argentina 4-2 in the final at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo.
Nearly 69,000 fans packed into the arena to see the 1924 and 1928 Olympic champions maintain their international supremacy and vindicate Rimet's decision to create the tournament.
Fittingly, he handed the cup – named Victory – over to the Uruguay skipper José Nasazzi.
World Cup gains traction
Further proof of the World Cup's popularity came in the 1934 event in Italy.
Thirty two of Fifa's 50 then members wanted to take part in the 16-team competition. To reduce the field, Fifa introduced a qualifying competition that included hosts Italy.
They survived the qualifiers and after winning the competition proper, Rimet was on hand to present the trophy the victorious Italy squad.
And he gave the Italians the trophy again in 1938 after they beat Hungary 4-2 in the final in Colombes just outside Paris.
But 15 months after the showdown, the world was engulfed in war.
Fifa, having relocated in 1932 from Paris to Zurich, Rimet was able to continue the organisation's operations in neutral Switzerland as nations battled for global domination.
Post-war development
The World Cup re-emerged in 1950 with a cup renamed the Jules Rimet trophy in 1946 to honour his 25 years as Fifa president. There was also an incentive: the first nation to win the cup three times would keep it in their trophy cabinet for ever.
In 1950, Rimet handed his namesake cup to Uruguay and he was at the heart of the award ceremony in June 1954 as West Germany won the competition for the first time.
Just after the final, Rimet, who was approaching his 81st birthday, stepped down as Fifa boss after 33 years in charge of the organisation he had helped to establish in his early thirties.
He died on 16 October 1956 a few days after his 83rd birthday in Suresnes on the western outskirts of Paris.
When two-time champions Italy faced Brazil in the World Cup final in 1970 at the Estadio Azteca in Mexcio City – the venue for the opening game of the 2026 tournament – they were not only playing for the title but also the right to keep the cup.
Brazil, who had triumphed in 1958 and 1962, claimed the Jules Rimet trophy and eternal bragging rights after thumping Italy 4-1.
Former UEFA president Michel Platini said on Monday he is suing FIFA president Gianni Infantino, in the latest chapter of a battle that began when scandal derailed Platini's 2015 bid for the FIFA presidency. After unsuccessful attempts in Switzerland, Platini is now turning to the French justice system to make his case.
Issued on: 09/06/2026 - RFI
Former president of the the European Football Association (Uefa), Michel Platini, at the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, Switzerland, 8 July 2022. AP - Alessandro Crinari
In a statement sent to French news agency AFP four days before the start of the 2026 Fifa World Cup, 70-year-old Platini, who ran the 1998 edition of the tournament in France, said his lawyers had filed two complaints in French courts.
The statement said the French justice system "is tasked with fully uncovering the conspiracy hatched against French soccer player Michel Platini to prevent him from assuming the Fifa presidency that had been promised to him".
When Sepp Blatter left his position as president of the governing body of world football in 2015, Platini, the head of European governing body Uefa, stepped forward as the most likely successor.
But the former France captain and coach was quickly submerged in the widening scandal. Instead his deputy at Uefa, Infantino, grabbed the Fifa presidency, starting a long-running vendetta.
In a statement sent to French news agency AFP four days before the start of the 2026 Fifa World Cup, 70-year-old Platini, who ran the 1998 edition of the tournament in France, said his lawyers had filed two complaints in French courts.
The statement said the French justice system "is tasked with fully uncovering the conspiracy hatched against French soccer player Michel Platini to prevent him from assuming the Fifa presidency that had been promised to him".
When Sepp Blatter left his position as president of the governing body of world football in 2015, Platini, the head of European governing body Uefa, stepped forward as the most likely successor.
But the former France captain and coach was quickly submerged in the widening scandal. Instead his deputy at Uefa, Infantino, grabbed the Fifa presidency, starting a long-running vendetta.
On Monday, Platini named Infantino, 56, as well as former Fifa officials Marco Villiger and Domenico Scala, as targets of his suit. He also asked for former Swiss Attorney Michael Lauber and other officials in that department to be investigated by their French counterparts.
The first of the actions announced by Platini's statement on Monday is a civil suit "to seek compensation for all the damages he has suffered as a result of the tactics used to prevent him from being elected Fifa president in 2015".
Internal manoeuvres
The second is a criminal complaint to force an investigation into a "criminal conspiracy to commit false accusation...influence peddling....and aiding and abetting influence peddling.
"This complaint specifically targets the individuals who worked to eliminate Michel Platini from the race for the Fifa presidency."
Platini has previously filed two separate complaints in Switzerland, but neither came to court.
Swiss prosecutors, for their part, launched a long-running criminal action against Platini for a payment he received from Fifa in 2011, but have three times failed to obtain a conviction.
Swiss authorities have also investigated Infantino for his use of private jets and for three secret meetings with Lauber in 2016 and 2017.
Platini reiterated on Monday that he believed he had been wronged.
"The Parisian investigating judge, along with investigative agencies, police, and gendarmerie, are tasked with uncovering and exposing the internal manoeuvres within Fifa, with the possible complicity of Swiss magistrates, to block the path of the three-time Ballon d'Or winner to the helm of world soccer," said the statement.
No comments:
Post a Comment