One hundred years ago in late May, seven wise men got together on Rue Saint Honore in Paris and formed FIFA, the Federation of International Football Associations. FIFA is the supreme organization of global soccer, the most popular sport in the world, played by some 240 million men and women, boys and girls.
FIFA has been guided by eight presidents including its current one, Sepp Blatter of Switzerland. All of them have contributed to the success of the organization.
Financially, FIFA made huge progress when Joao Havelange, a former Brazilian Olympic water polo player, took over the presidency. I met him last year in Portugal and, during a friendly conversation, he told me: "When I came to FIFA, we had $20 in the bank. Now we have $4 billion."
Another FIFA president, Jules Rimet of France, had perhaps the single biggest impact on soccer generally, and on FIFA's fortunes in particular when, in 1830, he created the first World Cup.
I've had the privilege of covering nine World Cups, some of them real thrillers. Unfortunately for me, one of those I missed, provided soccer fans with probably the biggest upset in soccer history, when a team of American semi-professionals beat England 1-0 in Brazil. So confident was the management of the England team that it rested superstar Sir Stanley Matthews. It wished it hadn't.
Another huge World Cup upset occurred in 1966 in England. I attended that event along with the late Sun columnist Bob Pennington. Both Bob and I watched in disbelief as the little men from North Korea ran around the pride of Italy and beat the Azzurri 1-0. The stunning loss caused a day of national mourning in Italy and the players were pelted with rotten oranges when they returned home.
One of the most clever coaching moves I ever saw was pulled off by the late Sepp Herberger of Germany in the 1954 World Cup at Switzerland. The foxy tactician knew that Germany had to play Hungary in the prelims and, then, most likely in the final.
Hungary was at the time the best team in Europe. It beat England 6-3 at Wembley in 1953 then punished the English side in the return match at Budapest 7-1. Knowing all this, Herberger lined up most of his reserves in the first match and watched calmly as his team got clobbered 8-3.
It was a different story when the two teams met in the final at Bern's Wankdorf Stadium. Herberger had all his first-liners in action and they edged Hungary 3-2 on Helmuth Rahn's winning goal. Hungary's stars -- Ferenc Puskas, Sandor Kocsis, Nandor Hidegkuty, Gyula Grosics -- stood in disbelief at the final whistle.
One of the most thrilling World Cups took place in Sweden in 1958, particularly in the final between Brazil and Swedes. A 17-year-old Brazilian youngster captured my imagination in previous matches, but he starred in the final at Rasunda Stadium.
His name was Edson Narrantes dos Nascimento, better known as Pele and he scored two goals in Brazil's 5-2 triumph. I'll never forget his second goal, when he took a pass from right winger Garrincha with his right foot, flipped it over the advancing Swedish stopper Gustaffson, pivoted around him and shot the ball with his left foot from the air into the top corner of the net. It was sheer poetry on grass.
I hope that one of these years, someone will be able to write about Canada manufacturing a stunning World Cup upset over one of the big powerhouses like Brazil or Italy.
GROSSLY ABBREVIATED
Former Olympic gold medal-winning equestrian Jim Day will have two horses -- Smoothness and Copper Trail -- in this year's Queen's Plate on June 27. Not to be upstaged by her trainer-father, Jim's daughter, Catherine Day-Phillip, will also saddle two horses in the race: A Bit O Gold and Winter Whiskey ... Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk is expected to enter Long Pond and Little Bentley ... Glenn Crouter, communications director of the Woodbine Entertainment Group, said he has never seen such interest among Canadian radio and TV crews than for Smarty Jones' run for the Triple Crown at the Belmont.
