Ottorino Barassi

Ottorino Barassi (5 October 1898 – 24 November 1971) was an Italian sports official whose first major task was helping to organise the 1934 FIFA World Cup, played in his native Italy. He later became a key figure in World Cup history when Italy won the 1938 tournament in France. With the next World Cup delayed 12 years by World War II, Barassi took possession of the Jules Rimet trophy. He secretly removed it from a bank in Rome and kept it under his bed in a shoebox, hiding it from Nazi troops in Italy.

After the war, he served as commissioner of the Italian Football Federation from 1944 to 1946, then as its president from 1946 until 1958. FIFA asked him to help Brazilian officials organise the 1950 World Cup, a task he completed successfully, ensuring the Estádio do Maracanã was ready on time and the event ran smoothly. He was a member of FIFA's executive committee from 1952 until his death in 1971, and in that role helped found UEFA in the early 1950s.

The Coppa Ottorino Barassi, a match between the FA Amateur Cup and Coppa Italia Dilettanti champions from 1968 to 1976, was named after him. In 2011, he was posthumously inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame.