Few men have left such a distinct mark, by the sheer force of their personality, on such a universal activity as football, as Henri Delaunay – UEFA's first General Secretary and the pioneer behind the UEFA European Championship.
Prodigious rise
Born in Paris on 19 November 1883, Delaunay was chosen in 1906 – at the age of 23 – as general secretary of the newly-founded French Interfederal Committee, which became the French Football Federation in 1919. Delaunay was an undisputed football expert. He was a referee, and began his international career in 1920 when FIFA asked him to sit on its new consultative committee for the Laws of the Game.
Global impact
In 1924, when FIFA took its place on the International Board – the guardian of the Laws of the Game – Delaunay was without interruption one of the two delegates, and it was he who, from 1930, compiled the first series of decisions regarding the interpretation of the laws. The crucial role played by Henri Delaunay in the creation of the World Cup is not widely known.
Open entry
At the 1928 FIFA Congress in Amsterdam, chaired by Jules Rimet, Delaunay staunchly defended and pushed through a decisive resolution to organise a competition which would be open to the teams of all affiliated national associations. In 1927, he submitted a proposal to world football's governing body, in conjunction with the great Austrian official Hugo Meisl, for the creation of a European Nations' Cup, to run concurrently with the World Cup, which would involve "a qualifying competition every two years".
European role
For Delaunay, who had played an influential role in the founding of the European Football Union, the Nations' Cup (UEFA European Championship) was no doubt as crucial to UEFA as the World Cup was to FIFA. The idea, he wrote after the UEFA Basel assembly in 1954, was for a competition open to all of the European associations. A three-member committee was entrusted with examining this difficult problem making sure the competition would not lead to an infinite number of matches or be harmful to the World Cup, and lastly, that participants should not always be forced to meet the same opponents in the same group.
Lasting association
Unfortunately, due to illness, Delaunay was unable to present these arguments. He passed away during the night of 9-10 November 1955, and would not see the birth of his competition three years later. It is quite right and fitting that the tournament – which has grown into such a success story – should carry the name of its eternal defender as a subtitle.
