Jean Bernard-Lévy

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Jean Bernard-Lévy (born March 9, 1897 in Paris , † May 16, 1940 in northern France ) was a French football official who achieved fame in particular as the president of the Racing Club de Paris and was considered one of the most determined advocates of professionalism in France.

Proponents of professional methods

The son of an industrialist grew up in the Marais , the Jewish quarter of the state capital. As a child, he himself played enthusiastically, if not particularly successfully, football at the Racing Club de France, the upper-class club from Paris. Professionally, Bernard-Lévy developed into a respected and economically successful real estate agent at a young age. Football also took up a large part of his life: from the mid-1920s he became the head of Racing's football department, organized friendship encounters against international opponents - including a Western European premiere against a selection of Spartak / Dynamo Moscow  - and was one of the functionaries of the RCF, who financially participated in the construction of the Olympic Stadium in Colombes in 1924 . On the side, he also found a job for a player. For his activities he received the Prix ​​du meilleur Racingman early on , an award for club members who had distinguished themselves through special commitment to the club. In 1930 - this year Racing had reached the final of the Coupe de France for the first time in its history - he committed the professionals from Arsenal London to a meeting in Paris, resulting in an annual meeting, always on November 11th, the anniversary of the armistice in the First World War , a traditional event. After Racing's 2: 7 defeat, he demanded the use of qualified coaches for all teams, including the youngsters, in the presidium of his club, in order to gradually bring the French level of performance up to that of the British. This was rejected outright by the club's presidium, for which, due to the social composition of the membership, sporting activities could only be imagined under amateur conditions.

Jean Bernard-Lévy also represented his club on the national council of the national association FFF , which decided in January 1931 to allow professionalism in French football, was elected president of this body shortly afterwards and, together with Gabriel Hanot and Emmanuel Gambardella , drew up the corresponding statutes for clubs and Player. But his own club presidium rejected his proposal in January 1932 to register the club for the professional Division 1, which started playing six months later : they would "not allow any professional club to bear the racing name" . Bernard-Lévy, convinced of his goals, did not give up, however, found in Jules Rimet , the President of the FFF, an important advocate, and 14 days later obtained another meeting of the RCF Presidium. At the end of the round, a large majority allowed “Monsieur Jean Bernard-Lévy to set up a new amateur club under the 1901 law that ... may employ professional players” and “noted that the new club would be called Racing Club de Paris will wear ” . The relationship between the new and the old club was regulated in such a way that the RCF continued to compete with all of its teams in the amateur field, but could borrow players from the RCP. Bernard-Lévy became President of Racing Paris, which was one of four capital city clubs to be accepted into Division 1, but also remained on the executive committee of the Racing Club de France.

Sporting successes

Bernard-Lévy, who was also cosmopolitan because of his business activities, signed Sid Kimpton, an English coach, who tactically switched the team to the World Cup system . For this he took from 1933 with the Austrians Rudolf Hiden and "Gusti" Jordan , the Briton Fred Kennedy and the Hungarian Jules Mathé several non-French players to the Seine , along with longtime Racingmen as Émile Veinante , Edmond Delfour , Raoul Diagne and Maurice Dupuis after two sporting rather modest years 1936 won both the championship title and the national cup ; thus the four-year-old club also secured the doublé . Intensified youth work had led to the number of club teams increasing from 16 to 52 during this period. In view of the rise of fascist movements in Europe and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War , the President continued to promote international meetings of the RCP and organized a “Paris Tournament” with top European and South American teams, the proceeds of which the club donated to an aid organization for those who had survived the war. In the 1936/37 season, a French team won their first win against an English professional club against Chelsea with 2-1.

After two years without winning a title, Racing completed another successful cup season in 1938/39 , at the end of which was another win of the Coupe de France - the last before the outbreak of the Second World War . Shortly after France declared war on Germany (September 3, 1939), not only a number of Racing players but also its 42-year-old president were drafted into the army. In the league round of Division 1, which was divided into two parts from 1939/40, his footballers could only participate to a very limited extent - they only played nine of the 18 scheduled games in the northern group - but in the cup competition Racing played through to the final and defended its title on May 5 1940 successful. Jean Bernard-Lévy also got an exit for this game, and of course the “football madman” celebrated the third cup win with his team - in the uniform of a Capitaine .

Early end

A week later the Wehrmacht began their attack on Western Europe ; Eleven days after the final in the Prinzenpark in Paris , officer Jean Bernard-Lévy fell in northern France during a battle against the German occupiers. The measures immediately taken by the Vichy regime collaborating with Germany against Jews, communists and foreigners (withdrawal of naturalizations from July 22nd, lifting of the ban on anti-Semitic statements in the press on August 27th, first “Jewish statute” on October 3rd, 1940) the "staunch advocate of republican principles" is no longer exposed, but his family and some of his players such as Edmund Weiskopf or Oscar Heisserer are .
Shortly after the end of the war and liberation, the club renamed the racing merit medal after its former president. In the foyer of the clubhouse in Paris' rue Eblé there is still a commemorative plaque for the dead and persecuted in the 21st century, which also commemorates Jean Bernard-Lévy.

Title under his presidency

  • French champion: 1936
  • French cup winner: 1936 , 1939 , 1940 (and finalist 1930 )

literature

  • Jean Cornu: Les grandes equipes françaises de football. Famot, Genève 1978
  • L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès: Coupe de France. La folle épopée. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2007, ISBN 978-2-915-53562-4
  • Jean-Philippe Rethacker / Jacques Thibert: La fabuleuse histoire du football. Minerva, Genève 1996, 2003 2 , ISBN 978-2-8307-0661-1
  • Günter Rohrbacher-List: Jean Bernard-Lévy, the “football crazy” of Paris. In: Dietrich Schulze-Marmeling (ed.): Star of David and leather ball. The history of the Jews in German and international football. Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-89533-407-3 , pp. 419-432.
  • Julien Sorez: Le football dans Paris et ses banlieues (de la fin du XIXe siècle à 1940). Un sport devenu spectacle. Presses Universitaires, Rennes 2013, ISBN 978-2-7535-2643-3

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ In some sources also: Jean-Bernard Lévy.
  2. ^ Pierre Delaunay / Jacques de Ryswick / Jean Cornu: 100 ans de football en France. Atlas, Paris 1982, 1983² ISBN 2-7312-0108-8 , p. 165
  3. ↑ Rohrbacher List, p. 420
  4. ^ Alfred Wahl / Pierre Lanfranchi: Les footballeurs professionnels des années trente à nos jours. Hachette, Paris 1995 ISBN 978-2-0123-5098-4 , p. 50
  5. ^ Rohrbacher-List, p. 421
  6. ↑ Cornu, pp. 98f.
  7. ↑ Rohrbacher-List, pp. 422-424; all quotations from there
  8. ↑ Rethacker / Thibert, pp. 135f.
  9. ↑ Cornu, p. 98
  10. ↑ Rohrbacher-List, p. 426f.
  11. ^ Sophie Guillet / François Laforge: Le guide français et international du football éd. 2007. Vecchi, Paris 2006 ISBN 2-7328-6842-6 , p. 141
  12. ↑ Photos of this scene can be found in L'Équipe / Ejnès, p. 356, and Rohrbacher-List, p. 429
  13. ↑ Rethacker / Thibert, p. 161; Cornu, p. 104; Rohrbacher-List, p. 429
  14. ^ Henry Rousso: Vichy. France under German occupation 1940–1944. CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 9783406584541 , p. 89; Michael Curtis: Verdict on Vichy. Power and prejudice in the Vichy France regime. Arcade, New York 2003 ISBN 1559706899 , pp. 105f.
  15. ↑ Pierre Arnaud: Le Sport et les Français pendant l'Occupation 1940-1944. L'Harmattan, Paris 2002 ISBN 2-7475-2077-3 , Volume 1, p. 113
  16. ^ Rohrbacher-List, p. 432
personal data
SURNAME Bernard-Lévy, Jean
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lévy, Jean-Bernard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French football official
DATE OF BIRTH March 9, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH May 16, 1940
Place of death Northern France