Henri Delaunay French Football Federation in 1919, he remained as secretary-general. As a member of FIFA, he sat on its board as deputy from 1924 until 1928. Along with Jules Rimet, he was an early architect of the FIFA World Cup. He was also a very early proponent of the European Champions Cup, as early as the 1920s. Together with Jules Rimet, he was largely responsible for the creation of the European Football Championship, the trophy of which is named after him, having first proposed it in 1927. The first tournament took place in 1960. He was General Secretary of UEFA from
Theft of the Jules Rimet Trophy Cup for a third time, but in 1983 the trophy was again stolen. A banker and football club agent (although the club, Clube Atlético Mineiro, denies his employment) called Sérgio Pereira Ayres (also known as "Sérgio Peralta") was the mastermind of the theft. Peralta engaged two other men, an ex-police officer called Francisco Rivera (a.k.a. "Chico Barbudo") and a decorator, José Luiz Vieira (a.k.a. "Luiz Bigode"). The two men entered the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF)'s building and, after incapacitating the nightwatchman, stole the trophy and two other trophies, "Equitativa" and "Jurrito". A safecracker, Antonio Setta (a.k.a. "Broa"), revealed that Peralta