Arthur Witty

Arthur Witty
Arthur Witty, 1903
Personnel
Surname	Arthur Witty Cotton
birthday	1878
place of birth	Barcelona ,  Spain
date of death	November 7, 1969
Place of death	Barcelona ,  Spain
position	defense
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1899-1905	FC Barcelona
1 Only league games are given.

Arthur Witty Cotton (* 1878 in Barcelona ; † November 7, 1969 ibid) was a Spanish - English football player , official and businessman.

Career

youth

Arthur Witty was the son of the British entrepreneur Frederick Witty, who had opened a shipping company in Barcelona in 1873 . After Arthur and his brother Ernest attended school at the Merchant Taylors' School in Crosby , they returned to Barcelona to join their father's business. Arthur had served as a striker on the rugby team in school; Since he did not find any rugby pitches on his return to Barcelona , he and his brother organized football matches for company teams. His brother Ernest, who was an excellent tennis player and founded one of the first tennis clubs in Barcelona in 1899, met the Swiss and later founder of FC Barcelona, Joan Gamper , on the tennis court .

player

When Gamper founded Football Club Barcelona on November 29, 1899 , it wasn't long before the Witty brothers joined the club. In the first game of FC Barcelona Arthur worked for the opposing team, which consisted of local British, and also scored the goal to make it 1-0. In the second game on Christmas Eve 1899, Witty played on the side of FC Barcelona against SC Català and contributed a goal to the 3-1 victory of his team. From 1900 there were enough clubs in Catalonia to be able to set up an official competition, the Copa Macaya . In the second edition of the tournament in 1902, FC Barcelona won its first title there. That year, FC Barcelona also received an invitation to the first national Spanish cup, the Copa de la Coronación . There Barça reached the final after defeating today's Real Madrid 3-1 in the semifinals . In the final, Witty was one of the starting line-up, his team losing to the Basques of Club Vizcaya 2-1. In total, Witty played 74 games for FC Barcelona by 1905, winning the Copa Macaya , the Copa Barcelona and the Campionat de Catalunya once each .

president

Even as a player, Witty was a member of the club's executive board under the presidency of Bartomeu Terradas . On September 17, 1903, Witty took over the presidency of FC Barcelona and made use of his business contacts to import balls, goal nets and referee's whistles for the club. During this time, Witty brought some young talents to the team, including Carles Comamala , José Quirante and Romà Forns . In the Catalan championship, city rivals RCD Español dominated the event, so that under Witty as president only one Catalan championship could be won. Under Witty, Barcelona played their first international match against Stade Olympique of Toulouse, and when they met on May 1, 1904, they played for an away game outside of Spain for the first time. In 1905, Witty was forced to provide the club with a new home ground, as office buildings were to be built on the Camp de la Carretera d'Horta . The club found its new venue at Camp del Carrer Muntaner . Almost eight months later, on October 6, 1905, Witty resigned as president.

Businessman

In 1924, the Witty brothers were embroiled in a scandal that occurred in 1924 at Camp de Les Corts . The two brothers had hired a band from the British Royal Marines to play the Spanish national anthem before FC Barcelona's home game. The Barça fans responded with whistles; as a result, the band played the English national anthem and received applause from the audience. The fascist dictator Primo de Riveras then closed the stadium for several months. Because of this politicization, the Witty brothers are increasingly distancing themselves from FC Barcelona. Together with his son Frederick, he then returned to his still existing company, Witty SA , and in the 1930s placed brands such as Cadbury , Johnnie Walker and Unilever on the Spanish market for the first time.

successes

player

• Copa Macaya / Copa Barcelona / Campionat de Catalunya (3): 1902, 1903, 1905

president

• Campionat de Catalunya (1): 1905

Web links

• Profile on the FC Barcelona website

literature

• Dietrich Schulze-Marmeling: Barça or: The art of beautiful play . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 3-89533-720-X .
• Jimmy Burns: Barça: A People's Passion . Bloomsbury Publishing, London 2009, ISBN 1-4088-0578-2 (English).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mundo Deportivo: Edición del miércoles, November 12, 1969, página 4