Carl Anton Wilhelm Hirschmann

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Hirschmann (right) as the representative of the Dutch association with the national team at the 1912 Olympic Games

Cornelis August Wilhelm Hirschmann (* 1877 in Medan , Dutch East Indies , † 26 June 1951 in Amsterdam ), called Carl Anton Wilhelm Hirschmann or rare Carl Anton Willem Hirschmann , also Hirschman was a Dutch banker and football functionaries , shall take Robert Guérin as Founding father of FIFA , for which he was active as general secretary from 1906 to 1931 and which he led as interim president between 1918 and 1921.

Career

Hirschmann served as secretary of the Nederlandse Voetbal Bond at the turn of the century and, after consulting Robert Guérin, turned to the English Football Association in 1902 and 1904 with the aim of founding an international association. After the rather cautious reaction by the FA, the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) was founded in Paris on May 21, 1904 in the back of the headquarters of the Union des sociétés françaises de sports athlétiques at 229 rue Saint Honoré. Hirschmann, who was elected vice-president of FIFA, campaigned for an international football tournament to be held in the following years. The first attempt at a world championship ended in a fiasco: The "world tournament" he organized in 1905 did not find any participating teams. It would be another 25 years before the first soccer World Cup . In 1912, Hirschmann probably also became the actual founder of the sport of handball when he recommended the hitherto largely unknown sport to football players in order to stay fit outside of the season. From 1913 Hirschmann was also secretary and treasurer of the Dutch National Olympic Committee ( NOK ).

After the First World War and the death of President Daniel Burley Woolfall , it was Hirschmann who was able to secure the existence of FIFA through his voluntary work as secretary and interim president, and at a congress in Brussels in 1919 he healed the wounds of a long and bloody war. In 1920 in Antwerp a new FIFA board of directors was elected on a provisional basis. It was composed of Jules Rimet as President, the Dane Louis Oestrup as Vice President and Hirschmann as honorary secretary. In 1921, Rimet was finally elected President of FIFA. Hirschmann had been an honorary member of FIFA since 1924 and headed the association's day-to-day affairs as honorary general secretary until 1931. He resigned when the association's assets were lost through speculation on the stock exchange. His successor was the German Ivo Schricker ; he became FIFA's first permanent employee in 1932. Hirschmann also lost his position as the Dutch NOK secretary due to the loss of speculation.

Web links

• History of FIFA