For the Game. For the World.

This week begins the World Cup, hosted here in North America. Like the Olympics, the World Cup is one of the few times I get deeply invested in sports. There is something about the international commonality of everyone watching and rooting for their country that I find hopeful and peaceful. It seems to dilute cultural and political differences, if only superficially and momentarily.

And that unity was the intention of the founder of the World Cup, Jules Rimet (for whom the championship trophy is now named after). Football (soccer) had been gaining massive popularity in the early 1900s, and it had been played as an Olympic sport for several years. However, FIFA wanted to hold a tournament separate from the Olympics that would allow professional players.

Rimet was FIFA president at the time and worked to bring the World Cup to fruition. He had a deep belief that sport could be used to bring peace. Rimet was born in eastern France in 1873, a place and time massively affected by industrialization and political upheaval.

When Rimet was 17, Pope Leo XIII released Rerum novarum, the encyclical on the dignity of work and worker’s rights. In the encyclical, Leo XIII discusses the importance of men having the time and freedom to gather in associations for the support one another and the good of society (RN 50). Rerum novarum also discusses the need for proper rest; men need rest from labor both for physical recuperation and spiritual nourishment (RN 42).

Rimet credited the encyclical for having a profound effect on his views of the poor, associations, and the Church’s social teaching. In 1897 he began a sports club which did not discriminate on the basis of class. Sports clubs were growing in popularity at the time, offering a way for people to relax, exercise, and socialize together. He also founded an organization that provided social and medical care to the poor.

Rimet believed that sports offered a way to unite people. He saw football in particular, given its low cost of entry, as a sport that could unite people across the world. A game does not require participants to share language, class, or politics. Rimet helped establish the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) in 1904. Rimet envisioned an international football tournament in order to promote peace and universal fraternity, though those plans got delayed by World War I. In 1930, his dream finally became real when the first World Cup was held in Uruguay.

Given the distance and the financial constraints of the Depression, most European countries declined to participate. The four who eventually did (Belgium, France, Romania, and Yugoslavia) crossed the Atlantic together on the SS Conte Verde; this gave the teams weeks at sea to meet one another and bond. Though they were on competing teams, the love of the sport opened the door to friendship.

Rimet’s effort to use football as a vehicle for mutual respect and solidarity, rooted in Catholic social teaching, led to his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1956. He is remembered as a humanitarian and idealist.

FIFA has fallen short of Rimet’s ideals. There have been scandals and ethical criticisms since the World Cup was hosted in fascist Italy in 1934. But the ideals of unity, peace, and fellowship are still worthy of pursuit. It’s important to keep striving for moments of comradery and understanding. It won’t solve all the world’s problems, but it can bring us closer, make us a bit better, and, 90 minutes or so at a time, give us joy.