U.I.A.F.A. and the Grand Tournoi Européen (Roubaix) 1911


U.I.A.F.A. | Grand Tournoi Européen 1911 | Match Data | About this document
At the occasion of the "Exposition Internationale du Nord de la France de 1911" in Roubaix, various sports events were organised, including a football tournament between some member federations of the U.I.A.F.A., a short-lived rival federation to F.I.F.A. This football tournament is sometimes described as a European championship, which is an absurd assessment (see below).

U.I.A.F.A.

1909 – Three Founding Members, Three Fancied and Three Phantasmagoric Ones
The U.I.A.F.A. (Union internationale amateur de football association) was founded in March 1909 in Paris by the A.F.A. (Amateur Football Association, England, created in 1907 by a number of clubs, such as the Corinthians, Casuals, Old Carthusians and Old Etonians, dissatisfied with the role of professional football within the F.A.), the Č.S.F. (Český svaz footballový, Bohemia, which, like the A.F.A., had been denied F.I.F.A. membership at the 1908 congress in Vienna) and the U.S.F.S.A. (Union des sociétés françaises de sports athlétiques, France, which had left the F.I.F.A. after that 1908 congress out of disagreement with the non-admittance of the A.F.A.).
The first president of the U.I.A.F.A. was Victor E. Schneider from Geneva, formerly a F.I.F.A. vice-president (he had been present at its foundation in 1904, also in Paris), who represented the francophone clubs of Switzerland loath to renounce on matches against U.S.F.S.A. member clubs. Some second level clubs from Vienna had also toyed with the idea of joining, having attended a meeting in Prague aimed at preparing the foundation of this new international federation, but eventually all remained with the Ö.F.V. (Österreichischer Fußball-Verband). Likewise, and contrary to French expectations, no Italian or Swiss clubs joined the new federation, although some did seek, in vain, dispensation from F.I.F.A. to continue playing friendly matches with their traditional French rivals from across the border.
In addition, there was hopeful speculation in L'Auto about prospective members from Russia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Turkey, which never got beyond wishful thinking but gives rise to the suspicion, also in light of the rather modest level of football in these three countries at the time, that at least part of the motivation behind the foundation of the U.I.A.F.A. was the French habit, dating back centuries, of pestering the Austrians, no doubt heartily applauded by the Bohemians.
1910 – Three Further Members
In February 1910 a rebel Belgian sports federation, the F.B.S.A. (Fédération belge de sports athlétiques), joined the U.I.A.F.A. Its membership did not include any major clubs, and appears to have been limited to Brussels and the francophone provinces of Hainaut and Namur. Of course, the U.I.A.F.A. named its new member "Belgium", but even calling it "Wallonia" would have overstated its influence.
Later that year, the F.E.C.F. (Federación Española de Clubs de Foot-ball) entered as well, after a first contact by telegram in October 1909. The F.E.C.F. was a Catalan initiative (its most prominent founding member was F.C. Barcelona, but its initial membership also included clubs from Irún, Madrid, Pamplona, Tarragona and Vigo) vying for supremacy in Spain with the U.E.C.F. (Unión Española de Clubs de Foot-ball, which at the time incorporated, among others, Madrid F.C., Athletic de Bilbao and Ciclista de San Sebastián). This second new member was often referred to as "Catalonia" by the French, which did not do justice to its geographical range; in 1911 the F.E.C.F. had in fact managed to gather most Spanish clubs under its umbrella before falling apart again in 1912 (F.C. Barcelona were among the first to leave).
The third new member was presented by the U.I.A.F.A. as "Austria", a gigantic misnomer, given that this "Austrian" federation was in fact the Z.F.P. (Związkiem Footballistów Polskich) from Galicia (then, like Bohemia, part of Cisleithanien, the Austrian half of the Habsburg Doppelmonarchie), a federation officially founded in May 1911 at the initiative of Wisła Kraków, which had already joined the U.I.A.F.A. on its own, masquerading as "Austria", in December 1910 after withdrawing from the Ö.F.V. – only to return within a year, in July 1911, by hastily joining the newly founded Z.P.P.N. (Związek Polski Piłki Nożnej, known in Austria as Deutscher Fußball-Verband für Polen), a Galician subfederation of the Ö.F.V. initiated by local rivals Cracovia and supported by the leading clubs from Lwów (then the main footballing centre of Galicia), thus killing off the Z.F.P. after a mere two months.
1911 – Three Phantom Members
Finally, at its January 1911 congress in Paris the U.I.A.F.A. reportedly admitted federations from Switzerland (L.S.S., Ligue sportive suisse), British East Africa (!) and "South America" as new members. There is no doubt about the Swiss entry, but its actual substance is highly doubtful, as no clubs of any importance withdrew from the official federation and in fact no information on L.S.S. member clubs or matches organised by the L.S.S. was found in the contemporary Swiss press; according to [Ruo 53], p. 31, a split within the S.F.A. (Schweizerische Football-Association) was avoided and the only noteworthy internal result of the international tensions was the demission of V.E. Schneider as "internationaler Delegierter" in August 1909. As for the latter two territories, one can only surmise they were represented at the congress by some resident Englishmen sympathetic to the A.F.A. who happened to be in Europe at the time, or had merely sent a letter of support – in the case of East Africa possibly a member of the then Amateur Football Association of British East Africa, which had been founded as the Nairobi District League Committee in 1906 and subsequently became the Football Association of Kenya.
1912 – Vanishing Members
The first U.I.A.F.A. member to disappear was the Galician Z.F.P., which did not survive the summer of 1911. Whether the L.S.S. ever really existed is questionable, and in 1912 both the U.S.F.S.A. and the A.F.A. started negotiating their way back into the senior bodies (F.I.F.A. and F.A. respectively). As a first result, at the end of December 1912, the U.S.F.S.A., which had already been deserted by several major Parisian clubs as early as August 1910, joined the C.F.I. (Comité français interfédéral), by then long established as the new French F.I.F.A. members (provisionally since December 1908, officially since May 1910). That effectively ended the U.I.A.F.A.
At the beginning of 1913, both Spanish federations (by then with different names and member clubs, as these had been squabbling incessantly and changing allegiance freely) applied for F.I.F.A. membership, only to be denied at the congress in Copenhagen in May, upon which they merged, in September, into the R.F.E.F. (Real Federación Española de Foot-ball), which was admitted to F.I.F.A., the driving force behind this unification, in 1914. In the same year, the A.F.A. returned to the F.A. fold, after two years of negotiations. That just left the Bohemians, unwilling to be subordinate to the Austrian federation, a problem eventually "solved" by the impending war.
Membership Review
Apart from the Bohemian and French founding members and, to a lesser extent, the A.F.A. and the F.E.C.F., none of the U.I.A.F.A. member federations commanded substantial support in their home countries. Most major Spanish clubs were affiliated to the F.E.C.F. at some point, but hardly any for the entirety of its short existence. The A.F.A. was joined by but a relatively small minority (less than one tenth) of the amateur clubs in England; its core members were the Old Boys clubs of the upper class "public" schools in the home counties surrounding London. The F.B.S.A. was formed by minor clubs from around Brussels and the francophone regions of Hainaut and Namur (although the athletics section of Stade gantois apparently also joined); its regional football champions included Cercle l'Union et Progrès de Bruxelles, Châtelineau, Gosselies Sports and Union sportive molenbeckoise. Even in France, hardly a football hotbed at the time, its teams were described as "faible". The L.S.S. probably only existed on paper, while the most significant activity of the Z.F.P., which had been formed by eleven, for the most part fairly obscure clubs from Biała, Dębica, Kraków, Mielec, Nowy Sącz, Rzeszów, Tarnów and Wadowice, was the hosting, by Wisła, of Aberdeen F.C. as part of the latter's misguided tour in May 1911 (approved, out of ignorance, by the secretary of the Scottish F.A., who, after an Austrian complaint, duly apologised for this faux pas at the F.I.F.A. congress in Dresden at the beginning of June).


Grand Tournoi Européen 1911

The football tournament at the Roubaix exposition is sometimes, quite preposterously, termed a "first European championship"; this is most tellingly belied by the fact that France's neighbours Belgium (Roubaix is very close to the border) and Spain, both affiliated to the U.I.A.F.A. at the time, were not even invited to enter.
Note that the claim in the relevant wikipedia article, as archived in February 2024 and September 2024, that the tournament originally was to be contested by all U.I.A.F.A. member federations (including, staggeringly, British East Africa) is a blatant lie, reminiscent of the wanton gibberish produced by the IFFHS on the 1920 Olympics, and cannot be substantiated by any contemporary sources; in November 2024, the reference to British East Africa was removed from this mendacious wikipedia article (which, in all archived versions up to at least June 2025, provided an entirely fake quarter-final draw) and the Belgian "withdrawal" suggestively linked to their defeat against Bohemia on May 25 – which is utter nonsense as the entire programme for the tournament had already been published in February 1911, when, on the 10th of that month, La Tribune de Genève (a newspaper from the home town of Victor E. Schneider, which probably is no coincidence) announced "trois matches internations" at the occasion of the exposition: "Le 25 mai se jouera le match Angleterre contre Suisse et le lendemain France contre Bohême. Le 29 mai, les gagnants de ces deux matches seront opposés l'un à l'autre."; that two months later L'Auto listed the four participants explicitly as "France, Hongrie, Suisse et Angleterre" only shows (apart from the fact that neither Belgium nor Spain were ever considered as entrants) that French understanding of Central European geography left much to be desired.
Moreover, observe that the aforementioned article also stated that the tournament was organised by local club Racing Club de Roubaix, "d'accord avec l'U.S.F.S.A. et ses fédérations alliées", so "in agreement with the U.S.F.S.A. and its allied federations", and therefore not directly by the U.I.A.F.A. – meaning there can be no question of any sort of U.I.A.F.A. championship. Another reason not to take the event too seriously as a proper championship is that the two French entrants, U.S.F.S.A. "Nord" and U.S.F.S.A. "France A", overlapped: they fielded nearly the same forward line (cf. the squad lists and match details below).
In addition, the assertion in the November 2024 version of that wikipedia article that the Swiss had withdrawn following tensions between "the Alemannic and the Romands" (which were a decisive factor nine years later in their withdrawal from the 1920 Olympics) is an invention, originally introduced in an article by Matthieu Delahais on the Chroniques bleues website, given that any members the elusive L.S.S. may have had (none are confirmed and based on the (un)available information the very existence of the L.S.S. may have been nothing but an elaborate hoax by Victor E. Schneider) were surely all francophone. The May 24 issue of L'Auto vaguely described the reason for the Swiss forfeiture as "différentes circonstances", but it is most likely the L.S.S. withdrew because monsieur Schneider could not assemble a team – faute de joueurs, faute de clubs membres, faute de tout. In fact, rather than any dissensions, it probably was the more or less unanimous stand of the Swiss football community, on both sides of the Röstigraben, to remain loyal to the F.I.F.A., that caused the Swiss withdrawal from this tournament and, ultimately, contributed to the unlamented demise of the U.I.A.F.A. (together with the lack of unity within France, which provided F.I.F.A. with a new (and rather more credible) French member, the C.F.I., and the lack of all but vague verbal support from Hungary).
Finally, the statement in both the aforementioned article by Delahais and the November 2024 version of the wikipedia article that the match on May 25 was played "après l'arrivée de la course cycliste Paris-Roubaix", i.e. "after the end of the Paris-Roubaix cycling race", is, to put it mildly, misleading: there was a cycling race that day between the two cities (the second edition of the so-called "Paris-Roubaix Indépendants"), but the sixteenth edition of the Paris-Roubaix had taken place more than five weeks earlier, on April 16, 1911 (cf. BikeRaceInfo, CycleBase (access now limited to registered users but archived by the invaluable Wayback Machine) or www.procyclingstats.com, or, of course, the contemporary Belgian, Dutch and French newspapers).
The contemporary French press called the Roubaix football event, somewhat more modestly, "Grand tournoi européen" or "Grand meeting de l'Exposition de Roubaix". Even so, the use of the adjective "grand" is merely indicative of the French predilection for agrandissement and not justified by either the limited scale or the haphazard set-up of the event. If one insists on looking for a "first" European championship avant la lettre, the football tournament at the 1908 Olympics (open to all countries with an existing football federation) is the obvious choice – even if the French would rather forget about their showing in London and the Bohemians couldn't afford the trip.

Note that the A.F.A. representation should not be confused with the England Amateur side fielded by the F.A. at the same time (which was much stronger, winning both official Olympic football tournaments before the Great War). Tournament hosts France had been the laughing stock of the continent ever since their embarrassing performance at the 1908 Olympics; after a 2-1 win against Switzerland in March 1908 they went winless for more than three years and a half (in which they played fifteen matches, drawing one and losing the remainder, scoring 13 goals and conceding exactly 100; for these matches, France were represented by the U.S.F.S.A. until the end of 1908 and by the C.F.I. since 1909), before finally getting a win at the end of October 1911 – against Luxembourg.
Thus, given the poor quality of the opposition, it was no surprise Bohemia won the competition; they had a strong team, which had only lost 0-4 at home to the full (professional) England side in June 1908 (Austria and Hungary had suffered heavier losses against the same opponents; three of Bohemia's players in that match, after which unhappy home supporters had viciously assaulted the referee, were part of the squad for Roubaix: Veselý, Benda and Bělka), and the Slavia club side had made a name for itself across the continent before leaving F.I.F.A.; after the draw for the football tournament of the 1908 Olympics, Bohemia, who had been paired with France in the first round, had been considered favourites to win the silver medals by the Dutch press, but they eventually withdrew less than a week before that match.


Match Data

Tournament Proper | Other Football Matches | Squad Lists and Match Details

Tournament Proper

All matches were played at the Stadium de l'Exposition de Roubaix.
Organised by Racing Club de Roubaix.

Participants (4):
A.F.A.                (England)
Č.S.F.                (Bohemia)
U.S.F.S.A. "France A" (France)
U.S.F.S.A. "Nord"     (France)

NB: U.S.F.S.A. "Nord" replaced L.S.S. (Switzerland), which had withdrawn; instead of
    the Č.S.F., "Hungary" had been announced as participants on April 11, but this
    was due to a confused French journalist, as two months earlier a Swiss newspaper
    (La Tribune de Genève) had already identified the participants as Bohemia, England,
    France and Switzerland, and it is unthinkable the U.I.A.F.A. would have agreed to
    holding such a tournament without its strongest (and founding) member federation;
    in addition, no Hungarian club or federation ever joined the U.I.A.F.A.

Semi-finals
[May 25; ref: F. Jénicot (R.C. Roubaix)]
U.S.F.S.A. "Nord"        1-2 A.F.A.                   [HT: 0-1]
  [hosts also listed as U.S.F.S.A. "France B"; the hosts scored at the beginning of
   the second half, the last goal was scored "at the final whistle" by the English
   centre forward (presumably H.W. Bryant); referee Fernand Jénicot was the brother
   of Albert Jénicot, who had played for France B at the 1908 Olympics;
   see below for additional data on line-ups]
[May 28; att: 4,000; ref: W.A. Gardner (A.F.A.)]
U.S.F.S.A. "France A"    1-4 Č.S.F.                   [HT: 1-4]
  [Chandelier 1-2; Bělka 0-1, 1-3, Košek 0-2, Medek 1-4; referee Wallace Gardner
   was also active as a player for the A.F.A. at the tournament;
   see below for additional data on line-ups]

Final [May 29; att: 3,000; ref: A. Collier (U.S.F.S.A.)]
A.F.A.                   1-2 Č.S.F.                   [HT: 0-0]
  [N.N. 60; Košek 70, Bohata 73 (scorers according to [Bor 57]; according to French
   newspaper reports, Bělka scored both Bohemian goals); Pimmer saved penalty (83);
   referee Albert Collier was a member of the U.S.F.S.A. Council (Conseil) but in
   July 1911 he left for the L.F.A. (Ligue de Football Association), which had been
   founded by four Parisian clubs in August 1910 and had joined the C.F.I., by then
   the French F.I.F.A. members (cf. [Del 23], p. 37);
   see below for additional data on line-ups]

Other Football Matches

The programme as announced in L'Auto on April 11 also included the following matches
as part of the tournament:

[May 7]
Final of the "Championnat militaire d'association de l'U.S.F.S.A."
U.S.F.S.A. "Nord"         -  A.F.A. member club to be announced

[May 14]
Swindon Torun FC (sic!)   -  Hull City                

This is rather peculiar as both Hull City and Swindon Town were regular F.A. member clubs
and thus forbidden to play in any event involving the U.S.F.S.A. or U.I.A.F.A.  In fact,
both clubs did play each other in Europe, one week earlier, in Brussels, Hull defeating
Swindon 1-0 in a match for the Coupe Henri De Decker (which Hull would also win in 1912
and 1913) on May 7.
On April 29, the Brussels newspaper "La Dernière Heure" announced, under the heading "Le
tournoi international de football à Roubaix", that the Stadium de Roubaix would be opened
with a "grand match de football" between the amateur team of Wales and the representative
team of Northern France (so U.S.F.S.A. "Nord") on May 7, but the Welshmen clearly changed
plans within a few days and had to be replaced (by the Old Malvernians).
In addition, the final of the "Championnat militaire d'association de l'U.S.F.S.A." was
only played on May 14 in Le Havre; instead a semi-final for that tournament was the first
ever match in the Stadium de l'Exposition de Roubaix; eventually the following matches
were played:

[May 7, inauguration du Stadium de l'Exposition de Roubaix]
43e rgt. inf. de Lille  13-0 23e bat. chasseurs alpins de Grasse
U.S.F.S.A. "Nord"        3-1 Old Malvernians          [HT: 2-0]
NB: result of the semi-final between the 43e régiment d'infanterie de Lille
    (champions of the 1er corps d'armée) and the 23e bataillon de chasseurs
    alpins de Grasse (champions of the 15e corps d'armée) as given by L'Auto
    on May 8; other sources gave the result as 12-0.

[May 14]
Roubaix XI               1-0 Lyford FC                [HT: 1-0]

Finally, on May 25, the Č.S.F. played a friendly against the Belgian U.I.A.F.A. members
on their way to Roubaix (a return visit after the Belgians had visited Slavia in March,
losing 2-6 and 0-5); this match was in no way related to the Roubaix tournament, apart
from presumably being the cause of the postponement of Bohemia's first match there from
May 26, as announced in February, to May 28:

[May 25; stade La Forestoise, Bruxelles]
F.B.S.A.                 1-6 Č.S.F.                   
  [the visitors were announced as Slavia and played in Slavia jerseys but the team
   included three players (Hajný, Bělka and Pilát) of other clubs]

Squad Lists and Match Details

Below all available information on squad lists and match line-ups, mostly taken from
contemporary French newspapers, is given.  As the spelling accuracy (even of French
names) of the responsible journalists left a lot to be desired, all corrections and
clarifications are most welcome.

Note that the following abbreviations were used for French clubs (following L'Auto):
   ASF = Association sportive française (Paris)
   FCR = Football Club de Rouen
   OL  = Olympique lillois (Lille)
   RCF = Racing Club de France (Paris)
   RCR = Racing Club de Roubaix
   SF  = Stade français (Paris)
   SR  = Stade roubaisien (Roubaix)
   USC = Union sportive de Clichy
   UST = Union sportive tourquennoise (Tourcoing)

Squad Lists | First Semi-Final | Second Semi-Final | Final

Squad Lists

Prior to printing all squad lists on May 24 (see below), L'Auto twice published
a 12-men A.F.A. selection for the tournament (all spellings as in the originals;
the players involved are clearly identical but there are small differences in
their initials):

On May 10 (page 5):
  G.M.C. Taylor (Old Cranleighans);
  J.C.D. Tetley (Old Carthusians), J.E. Hobbs (Union et Smiths Bank);
  H.A. Milton (Cassuals), B.H. Farnfield (New Crusaders), I.L. Snell (Old Carthusians);
  F.J. Smith (Civil Service), C.E. Brisley (Casuals), Rev. H.V. Farnfield (New Crusaders),
    A.H. Birks (Guy's Hospital), W.A. Gardner (Eastbourne), G.A. Joseph (New Crusaders).

On May 21 (page 7):
  G.M. Taylor (Old Cranleighans);
  J.C. Tetley (Old Carthusians), J.E. Hobbs (Union et Smiths Bank);
  H.A. Milton (Casuals), B.H. Farnfield (New Crusaders), J.L. Snell (Old Carthusians);
  F.I. Smith (Civil Service), C.E. Brisley (Casuals), Rev. H.V. Farnfield (New Crusaders),
    A.H. Birks (Guy's Hospital), W.A. Gardner (Eastbourne), G.A. Joseph (New Crusaders).

On May 24, L'Auto (page 5) announced the following compositions of the participants
(misspellings as in the original):

Angleterre:
  G.M.C. Taylor;
  Y.C.D. Tetley, J.E. Hobbs;
  H.H. Milton, B.H. Farnfield, Y.L. Emell;  
  R. Mouton Hing, C.E. Brisley, H.V. Stebbings, A.H. Birgs, W.H. Gardner.
NB: Y.C.D. Tetley was John Charles Dodsworth "Jack" Tetley (Old Carthusians);
    J.E. Hobbs was John Edward Hobbs (Union of London and Smith's Bank);
    H.H. Milton should read H.A. Milton (Casuals);
    B.H. Farnfield may have been Percy Hamilton Farnfield (New Crusaders) or
      (less likely) Bernard Stanley Farnfield (New Crusaders) – or neither,
      as there were half a dozen Farnfield brothers at New Crusaders, a club
      they had founded;
    Y.L. Emell probably was Ivan Edward Snell (Old Carthusians);
    Mouton Hing is a misspelling for Manton King (Guy's Hospital);
    C.E. Brisley was Cuthbert Everard Brisley (Casuals);
    H.V. Stebbings apparently replaced Reverend Herbert Vernon Farnfield as
      compared to the squads listed on May 10 and 21, and his initials may
      inadvertently have been copied from the discarded clergyman;
    A.H. Birgs should read A.H. Birks (Guy's Hospital);
    W.H. Gardner should read W.A. (Wallace) Gardner (Eastbourne).

Bohême:
  Plunner Karel (Slavia);
  Teschy Rich (Slavia), Kayny M. (Smichow);
  Kovarovick (Slavia), Maizl Frank (Slavia), Benda Linarn (Slavia);
  Bohata Otto (Sparta), Medek Lad (Smichow), Belka Josef (Sparta),
    Kosek Yan (Slavia), Sicoky M. (Slavia).
NB: apart from the reversal of family and first names (undoubtedly following the
    original paperwork submitted by the Bohemians), note that hardly a single 
    name made it correctly into the paper (and Bohata and Medek were linked to
    clubs they never belonged to); the actual players were:
  Karel Pimmer (Slavia);
  Richard Veselý (Slavia), Miroslav Hajný (Smíchov);
  Karel Kovařovic (Slavia), František Rosmaisl-Majzl (Slavia), Emanuel Benda (Slavia);
  Otakar "Otto" Bohata (Slavia), Ladislav Medek (Slavia), Josef Bělka (Sparta),
    Jan Košek (Slavia), Miroslav Široký (Slavia);
  the Bohemian team was trained by Johnny Madden (Slavia; from Scotland). 

Note that while the above eleven may have been presented as the first choice team,
the Bohemian squad obviously included additional reserve players.  Czech sources
list two players who were used in the tournament:
MF: Rudolf Holý (Slavia)
FW: Václav Pilát (Sparta)
Both had also played against the F.B.S.A. selection in Brussels on May 25; for that
match, two other players were also mentioned, probably due to faulty spelling (also
given that around the Belgian match it was mentioned the visitors were travelling
with two reserve players, so the entire squad apparently consisted of 13 players):
GK: Karel Pinye (Slavia)    [presumably Karel Pimmer]
FW: Miloslav Hedek (Slavia) [presumably Ladislav Medek]

France (équipe A):
  De Gastyne (RCR);
  Rouxel (SF), Schalbar (USC);
  Remy (ASF), Denis (RCF), Nicol [c] (RCF);
  Bacrot (OL), Cahndelier (OL), Eloy (OL), Sartorius (RCF), Voyuex (OL).
NB: the names of Schalbart, Rémy, Chandelier and Voyeux were misspelled in the paper;
    a note on substitutes following the four team compositions stated that Denis was
    to be replaced by Moigneu (UST); note that four of the five forwards were also
    part of équipe B.

France (équipe B):
  Parsi (UST);
  Mattisse (SR), Colette (RCR);
  Spriet (SR), Douchet (OL), Raulin (UST);
  Voyeux (OL), R. Dubly (RCF), Eloy (OL), Chandelier (OL), Bacrot (OL).
NB: the name of Parsys was misspelled in the paper; note that four of the five
    forwards were also part of équipe A.

First Semi-Final

On May 25, L'Auto (p. 5) announced the following line-ups for the first semi-final
(note that it did not list first names, which were added as far as available, and
that numerous (but possibly not all) spelling errors were corrected):

France (équipe B):
  Albert Parsys (UST);
  Mattisse (SR), Colette (RCR);
  G. Spriet (SR), Douchet (OL), Raulin (UST);
  Paul Voyeux (OL), Raymond Dubly (RCR), Albert Eloy (OL),
    Paul Chandelier (OL), Carlos Bacrot (OL).
NB: reportedly, the same eleven players had taken the field against the Old Malvernians
    (spelled as Old Malversians in the paper...) on May 7 (a report on that match had
    Paulin (apparently instead of Raulin) in the northern line-up); Parsys was part of
    the French squad at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp.

However, on May 26, a match report in Excelsior (p. 6) stated Voyeux had been replaced
by Lesur, who most likely was Henri Lesur (UST), an outside right (ailier droit) later
capped six times for France (C.F.I.), but may also have been his older brother Jean.

Angleterre (A.F.A.):
  G.M.C. Taylor (Old Cranleighans);
  J.W. Stretton (Old Malvernians), W.L. Johnson (Saint Thomas Hospital);
  S.A. Bryant (Civil Service), N.H.M. Smit (Norsemen), S.L. Wilson (Magdala Amateurs);
  R. Manton King (Guy's Hospital), H.V. Stebbings (Ramsgate Saint Georges),
    H.W. Bryant (Civil Service), F.M. Dickson (Old Wilsonians), Wallace Gardner (Eastbourne).
NB: for most players, also their county (Surrey, Middlesex or Kent) was indicated;
    some players were listed with multiple teams (e.g. R.M. King with Guy's Hospital,
    Casuals, Surrey and United Hospitals); only the first one given is listed above;
    note the above team differs considerably from the one announced on May 24.

Second Semi-Final

On May 27, L'Auto (p. 5) announced the following line-ups for the second semi-final
(note that numerous spelling errors were corrected and some first names added):

Bohême:
  Karel Pimmer (Slavia);
  Richard Veselý (Slavia), Miroslav Hajný (Smíchov);
  Karel Kovařovic (Slavia), František Rosmaisl-Majzl (Slavia), Emanuel Benda (Slavia);
  Otto Bohata (Slavia), Ladislav Medek (Slavia), Josef Bělka (Sparta),
    Jan Košek (Slavia), Miroslav Široký (Slavia).

France (équipe A):
  Guy De Gastyne (RCF); 
  Rouxel (SF), Auguste Schalbart (USC);
  Rémy (ASF), Henri Moigneu (UST), Alphonse Nicol [c] (RCF);
  Carlos Bacrot (OL), Paul Chandelier (OL), Albert Eloy (OL),
    Emile Sartorius (RCF), Paul Voyeux (OL).

On May 28, L'Auto (p. 7) again presented the line-ups for the second semi-final,
in which two changes were made for France: Henri Moigneu (UST) was replaced by
Robert Diochon (FCR) and Emile Sartorius (RCF) by Raymond Dubly (RCR).

On May 29, L'Auto (p. 6) published a match report, stating that Diochon had been
replaced by Gaudin, meaning France's actual line-up was:

  Guy De Gastyne (RCF);
  Rouxel (SF), Auguste Schalbart (USC);
  Rémy (ASF), Gaudin (RCF), Alphonse Nicol [c] (RCF);
  Carlos Bacrot (OL), Paul Chandelier (OL), Albert Eloy (OL),
    Raymond Dubly (RCR), Paul Voyeux (OL).

Note Nicol was a naturalised Romanian born as Niculescu and that the entire forward
line was identical to that of U.S.F.S.A. "Nord" as announced on May 25 (but in which
Voyeux apparently later was replaced by Lesur, see above on the first semi-final).

As for the visitors, [Bor 57] listed Rudolf Holý (Slavia) instead of Kovařovic and
Václav Pilát (Sparta) instead of Medek, giving the line-up as:

  Karel Pimmer (Slavia);
  Richard Veselý (Slavia), Miroslav Hajný (Smíchov);
  Rudolf Holý (Slavia), František Rosmaisl-Majzl (Slavia), Emanuel Benda (Slavia);
  Otto Bohata (Slavia), Jan Košek (Slavia), Václav Pilát (Sparta),
    Josef Bělka (Sparta), Miroslav Široký (Slavia).

Note Pilát was part of the Czech squad at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp.

Final

On May 29, L'Auto (p. 6) announced the following line-ups for the final (note that
numerous (but possibly not all) spelling errors were corrected and first names were
added where available):

Angleterre:
  G.M.C. Taylor;
  Jack Tetley, John Hobbs;
  H.A. Milton, B.H. Farnfield, Y.L. Emell;
  R. Manton King, Cuthbert Brisley, E. Melliar Smith,
    A.H. Birks, Wallace Gardner.
NB: Melliar Smith (possibly the N.H.M. Smit announced in the line-up for the first
    semi-final) replaced W. Stebbing (presumably H.V. Stebbings), injured in that
    first semi-final; a match report in Dunkerque-sport (June 4) mentioned Dickson
    and Wilson (both announced in the line-up for the first semi-final) as players.

Bohême:
  Karel Pimmer (Slavia);
  Richard Veselý (Slavia), Miroslav Hajný (Smíchov);
  Karel Kovařovic (Slavia), František Rosmaisl-Majzl (Slavia), Emanuel Benda (Slavia);
  Otto Bohata (Slavia), Ladislav Medek (Slavia), Josef Bělka (Sparta),
    Jan Košek (Slavia), Miroslav Široký (Slavia).

However, [Bor 57] listed Rudolf Holý (Slavia) instead of Bělka and Václav Pilát (Sparta)
instead of Medek, giving the line-up as:

  Karel Pimmer (Slavia);
  Richard Veselý (Slavia), Miroslav Hajný (Smíchov);
  Karel Kovařovic (Slavia), František Rosmaisl-Majzl (Slavia), Emanuel Benda (Slavia);
  Otto Bohata (Slavia), Jan Košek (Slavia), Václav Pilát (Sparta),
    Rudolf Holý (Slavia), Miroslav Široký (Slavia).


About this document

Sources included: [Bor 57], [Del 23], [DHL 08], [FIF 31], [HiL 11], [HoK 97], [JeJ 05], [Ruo 53], various contemporary French newspapers (available through Gallica), various contemporary Dutch newspapers (available through Delpher), various contemporary Belgian newspapers (available through Belgica Press), various contemporary Swiss newspapers (available through e-newspaperarchives.ch), eu-football.info, Chroniques bleues, http://historiawisly.pl, La Fútbolteca, Xtratime.org

Thanks to Matthieu Delahais and Jérôme Perani for additional information

Prepared and maintained by Karel Stokkermans for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation

Author: Karel Stokkermans (karel.rsssf@gmail.com)
Last updated: 25 Jul 2025

(C) Copyright Karel Stokkermans and RSSSF 2021/25
You are free to copy this document in whole or part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the author. All rights reserved.