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#Post#: 18801--------------------------------------------------
From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - Sir Stanley
Ford Rous (1895–1986)
DIR By: Timbo
Date: July 9, 2020, 11:47 am
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From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Sir Stanley Ford Rous
(1895–1986)
by A Pawson, revised
HTML https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/40150
Published in print: 23 September 2004
Published online: 23 September 2004
This version: 20 January 2019
Rous, Sir Stanley Ford (1895–1986), football referee and
administrator, was born on 25 April 1895 in Mutford, Suffolk,
the eldest son and third child in the family of two sons and
five daughters of Samuel George Rous, provision merchant, and
his wife, Alice Coldham. He was educated at the Sir John Leman
School, Beccles, and, after opting for a teaching career, at the
town's teacher training centre. His passion for football was
early apparent when, aged fifteen, he organized a village team.
Tall and strongly built, he was an imposing figure in goal and
showed considerable ability in local leagues. Watching Norwich
play league football he also developed an interest in
refereeing.
In the First World War Rous served in France, Palestine, Egypt,
and Lebanon, as a non-commissioned officer in the 272nd brigade
of the Royal Field Artillery (East Anglian). He acted as a
referee in wartime Egypt, after a wrist broken by a shell
impaired his playing ability. When demobilized he was attending
an officer training centre.
After the war Rous returned to complete his education, going to
St Luke's College, Exeter. His football and sporting interests
were furthered by his appointment in 1921 as an assistant master
at Watford grammar school, where he was in charge of all sport.
During his thirteen years at Watford he also became a leading
football referee. In 1924 he married Adrienne (d. 1950),
daughter of Victor Louis Gacon, silk merchant, originally of
Lyons, France, who had a small silk-weaving factory in Hemel
Hempstead. She was half German and half French. There were no
children of the marriage.
In 1927 Rous was appointed a Football League referee. On 13
March that year he officiated at an international match in
Antwerp, the first of thirty-four such games he refereed. In the
week in which he submitted his application for the position of
Football Association (FA) secretary he refereed the Welsh cup
final on Thursday, the Football Association cup final, in which
he used the diagonal refereeing system he had invented, on
Saturday, and an international in Antwerp on Sunday. Later he
wrote A History of the Laws of Association Football (1974) in
which he re-codified the laws of the game, redrafting the red
and yellow card system for cautions and the linesman's signals.
Rous’s appointment as FA Secretary in 1934 marked a change in
the governing body’s direction. His predecessor Frederick Wall
had been rooted in the game’s Victorian origins; by contrast,
Rous was open-minded and progressive. An avuncular figure, he
got his way more by humour and persuasion than reliance on
authority, although his straight backed, 6 foot 3 inch frame
gave him a distinguished presence, which commanded respect.
Rous was aware of football’s growing international dimension
and, through his refereeing, the improvement of playing
standards in Europe. England could not afford to stand still, he
believed, and he placed a great emphasis on training, coaching
and youth football from the start of his tenure, having written
a football coaching manual and a book of physical exercises
(both 1942).
In the post-war era, with Walter Winterbottom as England manager
and Director of Coaching, Rous ushered in more technocratic era.
The FA established national courses for coaching especially as
well as refereeing and sports medicine. His reforms only went so
far, however, as an International Selection Committee, not
Winterbottom, continued to pick the England team.
Rous's international outlook contrasted with British football’s
traditional insularity, yet almost single-handedly he
established Britain at the forefront of the game’s global
administration. Most notably, Rous was President of the
Fédération Internationale de Football Associations (FIFA)
between 1961 and 1974, succeeding another Englishman, Arthur
Drewry. But even before his Presidency, he had played the key
role in British football’s return to FIFA in 1946. In a move
that still resonates, Rous managed to ensure a permanent British
FIFA vice-president, elected from the four home associations
while the British-dominated International Football Association
Board continues to preside over the laws of the game. Rous had
also been keen to modernise FIFA and pushed through reforms,
which gave greater power to the confederations. Rous himself had
played an important part in the formation of the European
football confederation (UEFA), of which he became a
vice-president, in 1954, and earlier had supported Germany’s
return to international football.
Rous’s FIFA Presidency coincided with a sharp rise in the game’s
global popularity amongst post-colonial nations and he travelled
widely to promote and foster its growth in these countries. In
1962 he established a Technical Development Committee to fund
the improvement of standards in coaching, refereeing, and
administration, especially in the Third World. Under Rous, FIFA
also took its first tentative steps into the commercial era,
selling the television rights for the World Cup and accepting
sponsorship, albeit reluctantly. Moreover, in 1964 future World
Cup countries were confirmed up to 1982 to ensure that hosts had
more time to prepare for and promote the tournaments.
However, Rous faced opposition from emerging nations over his
policy towards South Africa, which remained suspended throughout
his tenure. Moreover, African nations boycotted the 1966 World
Cup in protest at their lack of representation. For 1970 they
were awarded one guaranteed place. A perception persisted that
Rous represented the imperial past, but he was perhaps more
guilty of political naivety. His secretary Rose-Marie
Breitenstein recalled how he was aware of but disliked the
growing politicisation of sport as it was ‘diminishing its good
values. Stanley did not want this, he was really in it for the
love of the game’ (Ward, 25).
Rous was nevertheless a powerful figure in football. He
developed an aura that was cultivated through the longevity of
his career. He was keen to continue in his role but in 1974 Rous
lost the Presidency to the Brazilian businessman, João
Havelange; a result that symbolised FIFA’s shift away from its
Eurocentric roots, which Rous represented, to the growing
demands of emerging nations.
Rous's many other contributions to sport in general include
being a founder member in 1935 of the Central Council of
Physical Recreation, of which he was chairman of the executive
committee from 1945 to 1973. Work for the King George's Jubilee
Trust, the 1948 Olympic games, the 1951 Festival of Britain, and
the duke of Edinburgh's award scheme typified his dedication to
his prime concept of 'work that others may play'. During the
Second World War he was released as a lieutenant in the Royal
Artillery from an anti-aircraft battery to organize sport and
raise funds for the Red Cross. From 1943 to 1947 he was a member
of Paddington borough council and he was a JP in 1950. He held
many foreign awards, was appointed CBE in 1943, and was knighted
in 1949. Rouse died on 18 July 1986 in St Mary's Hospital,
Paddington, London, of chronic myelomonocyclic leukaemia. A
memorial service was held in Westminster Abbey on 25 September
1986.
Rous was the most influential British football administrator of
the twentieth century. While he was a paid servant of both the
FA and FIFA, he also represented the generation of the English
gentleman-amateur administrator, which saw sport in terms of
participation. Nevertheless, he bridged the amateur-professional
divide and was aware of the need for football to modernise due
to its mass appeal. On the qualities required of his successor
at the FA, he made the pointed comment that, ‘The double first
and triple blue may be all right for the rugby world but not for
soccer’ (Rous, 141). Moreover, despite his international
outlook, he regarded soccer as a British invention and a sport
that required the guiding hand of someone from its shores to
steer the game’s global direction. With Rous as FIFA President
and England’s victory in 1966, British football’s reputation
reached an apogee, which it has yet to re-scale.
Photograph - National Portrait Gallery, London
#Post#: 18809--------------------------------------------------
Re: From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - Sir
Stanley Ford Rous (1895–1986)
DIR By: olddeagle
Date: July 9, 2020, 12:53 pm
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Interesting piece. Rous was often regarded as a reactionary but
I believe that when he moved from the FA to FIFA he wanted
Winterbottom to succeed him as FA secretary because he felt that
they needed someone who was in touch with the professional game.
However the diehards went for Dennis Follows, from the public
school/amateur wing of the game, instead.
#Post#: 19110--------------------------------------------------
Re: From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - Sir
Stanley Ford Rous (1895–1986)
DIR By: John Treleven
Date: July 15, 2020, 5:38 am
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The Rous marriage was in 1921 (third quarter)
#Post#: 19286--------------------------------------------------
Re: From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - Sir
Stanley Ford Rous (1895–1986)
DIR By: Acme Thunderer
Date: July 20, 2020, 3:32 am
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I recall being asked to propose a vote of thanks to Sir Stanley
at our local RA 50th anniversary evening in 1972. However I had
a late change of jacket and managed to leave my notes about Sir
Stanley in my jacket at home. Fortunately I was able to remember
most of what I had written down and Sir Stanley seemed suitably
impressed. He was 76-77 at the time and coming to the end of his
time as FIFA President. Nevertheless he was a great speaker and
we were all impressed with what he said during the evening.
#Post#: 19320--------------------------------------------------
Re: From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - Sir
Stanley Ford Rous (1895–1986)
DIR By: Timbo
Date: July 21, 2020, 1:30 pm
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The changing rooms at the old ground of Yarnton FC of the
Oxfordshire Senior League were opened by Sir Stanley Rous in
1976. A brick hut, little bigger than a garden shed, they had a
plaque on the wall to proudly commemorate the occasion. The
"old" ground was at Rutten Lane, Yarnton.
The next bit is heresay, but sounds plausible. i am told that
Sir Stanley was invited to open the changing rooms by his friend
Sir Harold Thompson, who lived locally.
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