23 Facts About Stanley Rous

Sir Stanley Ford Rous was an English football referee and the 6th President of FIFA, serving from 1961 to 1974.

Stanley Rous served as secretary of the Football Association from 1934 to 1962 and was an international referee.

Stanley Rous was the eldest son of a provision master.

Stanley Rous trained as a teacher in Beccles before serving in World War I as a non-commissioned officer in the 272nd Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery in France, Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon.

Stanley Rous played football at amateur level as a goalkeeper for clubs including Kirkley and Lowestoft Town, but was forced to retire from playing after breaking a wrist.

Stanley Rous developed an interest in refereeing whilst watching Norwich City and later qualified as a referee while studying at St Luke's and became a football league referee in 1927.

Stanley Rous eventually officiated in a total of 34 international matches.

Stanley Rous rose to the top tier of the game when he was appointed to referee the 1934 FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, where Manchester City defeated Portsmouth by 2 goals to 1.

Stanley Rous made a major contribution to the game by rewriting the Laws of the Game in 1938, making them simpler and easier to understand.

Stanley Rous was the first to employ the diagonal system of control for referees as a standard practice.

Stanley Rous served as secretary of the Football Association from 1934 to 1962.

At UEFA, Stanley Rous joined the Executive Committee in 1958, becoming vice-president in March 1960, before leaving to become FIFA president the following year.

In 1963, they were readmitted to FIFA after Stanley Rous travelled to the country to "investigate" football in the country, concluding that the game could disappear in the country if they were not readmitted, while the South African Football Association proposed playing an all-white team for the 1966 finals and an all-black team in 1970.

Stanley Rous continued to press for them to be readmitted, to the point that he was prepared to establish a Southern African confederation so that South Africa and Rhodesia could compete, but he was forced to back down after CAF members made it clear that they would withdraw en masse from FIFA at the 1966 FIFA congress in London.

In 1973 Stanley Rous insisted the USSR team play a World Cup qualifier against Chile in the aftermath of General Pinochet's military coup, at a time when thousands of political prisoners were being held in the Estadio Nacional Julio Martinez Pradanos sports stadium.

Stanley Rous stood for re-election as president in 1974, but was defeated by the vigorous canvassing of Joao Havelange, and in the context of discontent of other nations at European domination of FIFA, as well as opposition by African and Asian countries due to the pro-South African stance of Stanley Rous.

The short-lived Stanley Rous Cup was named after him, as was the Stanley Rous Stand at Watford FC's Vicarage Road ground, until being renamed the Graham Taylor Stand in 2014.

Stanley Rous wrote A History of the Laws of Association Football, published in 1974.

Stanley Rous was appointed CBE in 1943 and knighted in 1949.

Stanley Rous was a friend of one of the founding members of FIFA, Ivo Schricker.

Stanley Rous was a freemason attending Exonian Lodge No 3415 in London.

Stanley Rous died in Paddington, London, of leukaemia in 1986, at the age of 91.

Stanley Rous is buried with his wife Lady Rous in the Holy Trinity Church in the Lickey Hills, close to both Bromsgrove and Birmingham.