By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (February 1^st 2021)

Making Unwanted History

The Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) insists that governments are not permitted to interfere in football affairs, especially with FAs. But history tells a very different story. Over a century ago FIFA failed its first test miserably.

The Kingdom of Bohemia was an independent nation long before FIFA was founded. At one point it was the most important component of the Habsburg Empire. In time Austria and Hungary took control. Bohemia became part of the Habsburg Empire but not through conquest.

The name of one of the Czech Republic’s top-flight teams tells a story, Bohemians 1905. Bohemia joined FIFA in 1907 – where was the objection then as they played international matches, including while tuning up for the 1908 Olympic Games Football Tournament. Their opponents included England as well as Hungary. There should have been little doubt that Bohemia was a legitimate member of FIFA[1].

Failing the First Test

Instead, political interference reigned. Austria objected, claiming that Bohemia was not a country and that it had no right to FIFA membership. Disgracefully, Bohemia’s membership of FIFA was rescinded as football’s governing body caved in shamefully to political interference in 1908 – Bohemia was never allowed to compete in Olympic Games Football Tournaments. This disgraces FIFA.

Ironically, having blocked Bohemia, Austria did not compete in the football either and nor did Hungary. Interestingly, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had no problem with Bohemia which competed in other sports along with competitors from Austria and Hungary.

It was an abject failing by FIFA of its first major test – one that shames it.

At the time FIFA was a comparatively young organisation and the future of football’s governing body was far from assured. But still.

Further Failings

Unlike Bohemia, the Russian Empire was rushed into membership of FIFA so it could compete in the 1912 Olympic Games Football Tournament. It had played unofficial matches against Bohemia. The Russian Empire lacked Bohemia’s football history and received vastly different treatment from FIFA.

In Stockholm’s Olympic Games Football Tournament the Russian Empire was trounced 16-0 by Germany – the German star, Gottfried (Godfrey) Fuchs, netting a still standing Olympic record of ten goals in the match (Fuchs’ Jewish origins led to persecution by the Nazis when they came to power). The Russian Tsar, Nicholas II was so enraged by the performance that he refused to pay the team’s fare home.

Unprecedented Interference

Political interference in sport is nothing new and nor is acquiescing to such pressures. It became more blatant after World War I ended.

Following the ‘War to End All Wars,’ as the First World War was once called, political interference in sport reached unprecedented levels. The defeated nations were banned from the first post-war Olympic Games, which included football. Among the banned nations were Austria and Hungary – the Habsburg Empire had collapsed after the war. New independent nations emerged from the defeated empires – the Ottoman (Turkish Empire) had also collapsed. The newly independent nations were welcomed to the Olympic movement. Football too welcomed them. Included in these nations was Bohemia – essentially by a new name – Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile, FIFA expanded, but the IOC acquiesced with blatant political interference in sport.

Blatant

The victorious nations in the First World War were not content with the debilitating terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty (1919). Nor were they sated by dismantling the defeated nations’ empires and the dreams of independence of at least some of the countries that had been governed by those empires.

Significantly, they did not recognise the independence of countries they had colonised even if they fought alongside them in the war – something rapidly given to their white governed colonies. They greedily gobbled up Germany’s African colonies without a second thought for the aspirations for independence of those countries.

But all this was not enough. Germany and its other defeated allies were banned from Antwerp’s Olympiad – the first after the war. That happened because the victors demanded it. In Germany’s case it became even worse. The next Olympiad was scheduled for Paris. It took place after France and its ally Belgium occupied the industrial heartland of Germany, the Ruhr, over reparations. Germany’s currency was worthless. The hardship already suffered by ordinary Germans was appalling. It mattered not a whit that those who suffered most were ordinary Germans, not those responsible for the war on Germany’s side. It contributed to the radicalising of German people in a new and sinister direction – this sowed the seeds for Nazism to grow.

Victim-blaming

The IOC responded to this flagrant breach of its beliefs and original Olympic ideals by punishing the victim. Far from stripping France of its Olympiad, which should have happened, it banned Germany again. So, Germany missed the 1924 Olympic Games Football Tournament as well. FIFA cannot be blamed for this as that tournament was organised by it for the IOC.

Nevertheless, it is a clear example of political interference in sport, but if FIFA gets a pass over that there were other issues as well, which contributed to the need for a FIFA World Cup. Football at that stage was organised under Olympic rules of amateurism. This led to a dispute between England and FIFA and the IOC.

Amateurism made football a sport for those who could afford to play. It made it elitist. Also, the growing popularity of football was not benefiting the sport. A separation of the Olympic Games and football was becoming inevitable. And there was racism question too.

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[1] For further details see The Final Rehearsal Part Eight – Football’s Betrayal at  https://empowersmag.com/empowersmagwp/2021/02/14/the-final-rehearsal-part-eight-footballs-betrayal/