Arthur Drewry

Arthur Drewry (3 March 1891 – 25 March 1961) was an English football administrator who served as the fifth president of FIFA, the world governing body of association football, from 1955 to 1961. Drewry held several football administration posts in his native England, serving as chairman of The Football Association and president of The Football League.

Biography Drewry was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, and educated at the Grimsby Collegiate School.

In 1911 Drewry joined the Lincolnshire Yeomanry and served in the First World War with the 1/1st Lincolnshire Yeomanry in Palestine. As chair of the FA Drewry once proposed awarding a point to league teams for every goal scored to encourage offensive football. Drewry's proposals were rejected by the teams.

Drewry played a significant role in the 1950 game between England and the United States in which the English lost 1–0 to the rank outsiders in the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Belo Horizonte. The English national coach, Walter Winterbottom, had wanted to rest some players for the next game against Spain, but was over-ruled by Drewry, acting as sole selector, who chose an unchanged team from their last game, a 2–0 win against Chile. After the loss against the United States, Drewry acquiesced to four changes to the team, but England lost their next game to Spain 1–0, and as a result were eliminated from the tournament.

In 1953 Coronation Honours, Drewry appointed a Commander of Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Following the Munich air disaster on 6 February 1958 which claimed the lives of a number of Manchester United staff and personnel, Drewry was appointed chairman in March of the fundraising committee for dependents of those involved in the disaster. The funds raised had reached £52,000 by the time of their disbursement in October 1958.

In his capacity as chair of the FA, Drewry was one of six football officials sued by five Sunderland players who were suspended in 1957 for refusing to answer questions about possible illegal payments. Stanley Rous served as Drewry's secretary at the FA. Drewry and Rous travelled to Switzerland in 1945, to the headquarters of FIFA to successfully negotiate for the re-admittance of the British Home Nations to FIFA. At the 30th FIFA Congress in Lisbon, Portugal, Drewry defeated France's M. Larfarge by 38 votes to 16 for the presidency. Drewry oversaw the 1958 FIFA World Cup during his term in office, and ultimately served as president for five years before his death from a year-long illness in 1961. Drewry was the third FIFA president to die in office.