Daniel Burley Woolfall

Daniel Burley Woolfall (1908)

Daniel Burley Woolfall (born June 15, 1852 in Blackburn , † October 24, 1918 ) was an English lawyer and football official and from June 4, 1906 until his death, second president of FIFA .

Woolfall was from Blackburn and had been active in the English Football Association before he was elected to FIFA in 1906 as the successor to founding President Robert Guérin . Under his leadership, English and continental football came to a closer bond; Before that, the units of France and England in particular had been at odds. During his time as FIFA President, he tried to standardize the rules of the game based on the English model.

He helped organize the first Olympic football tournaments at the 1908 and 1912 Olympics , which was mainly in the hands of his home English association. Woolfall not only supported uniform rules for football, but also basic rules for FIFA, some of which are still valid today. Internationals were clearly defined by Woolfall (national teams and interclub), and outsiders were prohibited from organizing matches in order to make a profit.

Woolfall began to enlarge FIFA and expand it to other continents. Up until 1909, FIFA consisted entirely of European associations. The first members from overseas were registered under his presidency: 1909/1910 South Africa , 1912 Argentina and 1913 Chile and the USA . After that, the First World War prevented further expansion.

In 1918 Daniel Burley Woolfall died in an office that remained vacant for a long time in the aftermath of the First World War and, after an interim job with General Secretary Carl Anton Wilhelm Hirschmann , was held by Jules Rimet from 1921 .

Web links

• Daniel Burley Woolfall on the FIFA website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} In the Shadow of more Famous Names ( Memento of February 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), on fifa.com, of September 17, 1998.