Robert Guérin

Robert Guérin (1906)

Robert Guérin (born June 28, 1876 , † March 19, 1952 ) was a French journalist and football official and from May 22, 1904 to June 4, 1906 the first president of the world football association FIFA, which he initiated .

Robert Guérin initiated the establishment of the world football association at the French sports association Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques as secretary of the football department. As a journalist, he published calls to the continental associations in the newspaper Matin as early as 1903 to organize an umbrella organization for football. Belgium and France played their first official international match on May 1, 1904 in Brussels . Guérin used this opportunity to meet the Belgian association secretary and to discuss the establishment of FIFA. Robert Guérin then took the initiative and invited interested associations to the founding meeting.

At the first FIFA meeting in Switzerland on May 22, 1904, he was elected the first president of the newly founded football association. Many associations, especially from Europe , including the English Football Association , which continues to be highly regarded for its importance for world football in 1905 , joined FIFA and Guérin was re-elected by the FIFA executive the following year. However, the problems increased in the years to come. The first planned international competition in 1905 was not held due to a lack of interested participants. The French association in particular was split in terms of personnel. This prompted Robert Guérin to withdraw more and more from working life. More and more often he left the tasks to his Vice President Victor Schneider . When he was voted out of office at the Congress in 1906 in the Swiss federal city of Bern , he was no longer present, but was represented by his vice-president. The Englishman Daniel Burley Woolfall was elected as the new president .