Football Research in an Enlarged Europe

Series Editors

Albrecht Sonntag

ESSCA School of Management, EU-Asia Institute, Angers, France

Dàvid Ranc

ESSCA School of Management, EU-Asia Institute, Angers, France

This series publishes monographs and edited collections in collaboration with a major EU-funded FP7 research project ‘FREE’: Football Research in an Enlarged Europe. The series aims to establish Football Studies as a worthwhile, intellectual and pedagogical activity of academic significance and will act as a home for the burgeoning area of contemporary Football scholarship. The themes covered by the series in relation to football include, European identity, memory, women, governance, history, the media, sports mega-events, business and management, culture, spectatorship and space and place. The series is highly interdisciplinary and transnational and the first of its kind to map state-of-the-art academic research on one of the world’s largest, most supported and most debated socio-cultural phenomenona.

Editorial Board

Richard Giulianotti (Loughborough University, UK)

Kay Schiller (Durham University, UK)

Geoff Pearson (Liverpool University, UK)

Jürgen Mittag (German Sport University Cologne, Germany)

Stacey Pope (Durham University, UK)

Peter Millward (Liverpool John Moores University, UK)

Geoff Hare (Newcastle University, UK)

Arne Niemann (Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany)

David Goldblatt (Sports writer and broadcaster, UK)

Patrick Mignon (National Institute for Sports and Physical Education, France)

More information about this series at http://​www.​palgrave.​com/​gp/​series/​14987

Philippe Vonnard

Creating a United Europe of Football

The Formation of UEFA (1949–1961)

Philippe Vonnard

University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland

Football Research in an Enlarged Europe

ISBN 978-3-030-42342-1e-ISBN 978-3-030-42343-8

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42343-8

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover image: © Austria Press Agency/Draw of the semi-final of the European Cup Winners’ cup, 21 March 1967 (in Vienna)

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG

The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

This book is dedicated to André Vieli

… and more generally to the numerous employees (often forgotten) who have worked for the development of UEFA

Preface

This manuscript is the result of ten years of research on the establishment of a European perspective in football. I wanted to understand the process by which playing at the European level became something ‘natural’, arguing that theUnion des associations européennes de football (UEFA), founded in 1954, was a key actor of this process. Due to the lack of studies about the creation and early years of UEFA, most of my work focused on this topic and, more generally, on understanding the European turning point of football unfolding from the end of the 1920s to the beginning of the 1970s. It is important to note here that the book focuses exclusively on men’s football (women’s football was not very developed during the period studied).

The present book is a synthesis of these researches even if it focusses mainly on what happened during the 1950s. It takes into account the reflexions developed from my master thesis (published in 2012 under the title La Genèse de la Coupe des clubs champions , CIES), then enlarged with a Ph.D. thesis realised at the University of Lausanne (published in 2018 under the titleEurope dans le monde du football , P.I.E. Peter Lang) and during a postdoc conducted at the University Paris-Sorbonne between 2017 and 2018. Several research results have already been published in sport sciences journals (Soccer & Society ,Sport in Society ,Sport in History ,Sport History Review ,European Study of Sport History ,Sport et sciences sociales andStaps. Revue internationale de sciences du sport, Storia dello Sport. Rivista di Storia Contemporanea ) and in generalist contemporary history journals (20 & 21 siècle. Revue d’histoire, Journal of European Integration History ,Contemporary European History, Hispania Nova and theRevue Suisse d’histoire ).

I have also developed some thoughts on the history of European football thanks to collaborative projects like the editing of several books includingBuilding Europe with the Ball (Peter Lang, 2016),Beyond Boycotts, Sport During the Cold War in Europe (De Gruyter, 2017) andDes réseaux et des hommes. Participation et contribution de la Suisse à l’internationalisation du sport (Alphil, 2019); and the coordination of different projects: two special issues, one on the international sport bodies (Sport in History , 2017), the other on the transnational history of the World cup (Soccer & Society , forthcoming); and the ongoing work on European exchanges in sport for the online Encyclopdia ‘Ecrire une histoire nouvelle de l’Europe’ (EHNE) ( www.​ehne.​fr ).

As I will explain in more detail in the introduction (Chapter 1 ), I have a great debt to the former generations of social sciences researchers (anthropologists, historians, political scientists and sociologists) who have worked for more than 30 years in developing the field of European football studies. Furthermore, I have been able to deepen and widen my knowledge of European (men’s and women’s) football history and sociology thanks to the participation in several projects, including the Football Research in an Enlarged Europe (FREE), the workshops organised by Prof. William Gasparini (University of Strasbourg) and Prof. Jürgen Mittag (Deutsche Sporthochschule) on the topic of sport and Europe, and numerous scientific events on football studies held notably in Angers (run by Prof. Albrecht Sonntag and Prof. Paul Dietschy), Brussels (run by Prof. Jean-Michel De Waele), Moscow (run by Dr. Sylvain Dufraisse), Oxford (run by Kausik Bandyopadhyay and Souvik Naha), Paris (run by Dr. Piepaolo Naccarella and Dr. Nicola Sbetti), Neuchâtel (run by Thomas Busset), SchwabenAkademie (run by Dr. Markwart Herzog) and Warsaw (run by Dr. Seweryn Dmowski). I also have the good fortune to be part of the Réseau d’études des relations internationals sportives (RERIS) ( www.​reris.​net ), which enables me to develop my ideas and understanding of the history of sport through detailed, informed discussions with a supportive and friendly network of inspiring researchers.

Philippe Vonnard

Lausanne, Switzerland

March 2020

Acknowledgments

This book has benefited from financial support from different institutions. I am particularly grateful to the University of Lausanne (Institute of sport sciences and Faculty of political and social sciences) and UEFA for supporting my project. Here I thank notably all the UEFA’s staff members who help me in my research, particularly Nicolas Bouchet (Archivist of UEFA) for his great help since many years (!), and Thomas Junod (Head of UEFA Academy) and Emmanuel Deconche (Publications manager) for their strong support regarding this project of publications.

Concerning the writing process, I am grateful to Prof. Albrecht Sonntag and Dr. David Ranc, co-editors of the Football in an Enlarged Europe series, to have accepted the idea of this book and for their constant support all along the process. I would also like to thank the staff at Palgrave Macmillan, notably Sharla Plant and Poppy Hull, for their interest in my work and for their availability. Moreover, I am very indebted to Shani D’Cruze and Paul Henderson for the excellent review and proofreading of the first draft of the manuscript.

Although writing a book is a personal adventure, this process is possible thanks to a collective work (like a football game!). Of course, many people would have to be thanked here, however, due to the place at my disposal for this section, I will just thank my brilliant and inspiring colleagues of the Institute of sport sciences from the University of Lausanne (ISSUL) and four essential people.

First, I thank André Vieli—UEFA employee from 1982 to 2012 and who authored the 60 years Union commemorative book—with whom I have regular and interesting discussions about UEFA and European football. Secondly, I am grateful to Prof. Jürgen Mittag for his constant support beginning with my research stay in Cologne at his institute between 2014 and 2015. Thirdly, I also wish to extend my gratitude to Dr. Kevin Tallec Marston, research fellow at the Centre international d’étude du sport (CIES) de Neuchâtel, for our pleasant discussions about European football history. Fourthly, I address a particular thought to my colleague, and close friend, Dr. Grégory Quin, with whom I have shared the passion for contemporary sports history for many years. His advice, his (unconditional) support and his (great) enthusiasm are helpful, particularly during the rough times of research (and life).

Finally, I really want to thank my wife, Luz Romero, who has helped me to open my mind to the diversity of the world, who has fostered my desire to improve my knowledge of foreign languages andlast but not the least , for her great work in the translation process. Without her help, the present book would not have been in your hand!

Abbreviations

ASF

Switzerland Football Association

DFB

German Football Association

EBU

European Broadcasting Union

EEC

European Economic Community

EU

European Union

FA

Football Association

FFF

French Football Association

FIFA

Fédération internationale de football association

IBU

International Broadcasting Union

ILLC

International Liaison League Committee

IOC

International Olympic Committee

NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

UEFA

Union des associations européennes de football

URBSFA

Belgian Football Association

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.​1 Why Study the Relationship Between Football and Europe?​ 2

1.​2 Football in Europe:​ A Historical Perspective 5

1.​3 Historical Studies of UEFA:​ State of Play 7

1.​4 Studying the Creation of UEFA 10

1.​5 Drawing on the ‘Football Archives’ 12

1.​6 Structure of the Book 15

Part I The road to creating a governing body for European football. 1949–1953.

2 Reorganising European Football 21

2.​1 A New Phase of the Europeanisation of the Game 21

2.​2 New Ideas, New Leaders 27

2.​3 A ‘Little Council of Europe in Football’ 37

3 Between Internationalism​ and Cold War 47

3.​1 FIFA Facing the New World Order 48

3.​2 Reorganisation:​ A Response to the New Challenge?​ 55

3.​3 Facing the Claims of the Soviet Bloc 60

4 Following the South American Model 69

4.​1 A ‘Game’ Between South Americans and Europeans 69

4.​2 The ‘Thommen Compromise’ and the Opening Route to UEFA’s Creation 82

Part II Unifying European Football 1954–1961

5 Energising European Football 93

5.​1 UEFA:​ A New Body for European Football 94

5.​2 Where Do UEFA’s Borders Lie?​ 108

5.​3 Creating Competitions for Clubs 114

5.​4 The Difficult Road Towards a European Cup of Nations 124

6 Managing the Cold War and Building Europe 131

6.​1 Managing the Cold War Context 132

6.​2 Securing UEFA’s Position 143

6.​3 European Dialogue:​ UEFA-EBU Exchanges 149

6.​4 An ‘Atypical Actor’ in European Cooperation 156

7 Becoming a Leading Continental Confederation 161

7.​1 The Continentalisati​on of FIFA 161

7.​2 Achieving Autonomy from FIFA 169

7.​3 Inspiring the South Americans in Return 178

8 Conclusion 183

8.​1 The Establishment of a European Football Confederation 184

8.​2 UEFA’s Consolidation during the 1960s 188

8.​3 Further Researches on the Europeanisation of Football History 200

Sources 205

Chronology 209

Bibliography 215

Index 235

List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 European countries that ratified the proposed amendment to FIFA’s statutes44

 

Fig. 3.1 Increase in the number of FIFA member associations from 1904 to 195049

 

Fig. 5.1 Questionnaire sent to European associations in May 195496

 

Fig. 6.1 European countries that attended the constitutive assembly of the Group of European Football Associations132

 

Fig. 6.2 Clubs that took part in the second edition of the Champions Cup (Interestingly, this map does not show the border between East and West Germany. Was this an oversight or does it represent UEFA’s vision of Europe at the time?)160

 

Fig. 7.1 European football bodies in 1930 and 1954170

 

Fig. 8.1 Comparison of UEFA’s main standing committees in 1960 and 1970193

 

List of Tables

Table 2.1 European countries that took part in the International Youth Tournament from 1949 to 195327

 

Table 3.1 Composition of the FIFA reorganisation committee (1950–1953)57

 

Table 4.1 Comparison between the original composition of the executive committee and that proposed by the new draft FIFA Statutes73

 

Table 4.2 Composition of the executive committee according to the new draft FIFA statutes85

 

Table 5.1 UEFA standing committees (early 1959)103

 

Table 6.1 FIFA executive committee members elected by the Group of European Football Associations136

 

Table 6.2 Members of UEFA’s executive committee in 1958139

 

Table 7.1 Composition of FIFA’s executive committee under the 1954 statutes164

 

Table 8.1 Number of countries and delegates present at UEFA congresses from 1960 to 1970189

 

Table 8.2 Members of UEFA’s executive committee in 1966196