Editing Walter Winterbottom

{{Short description|English footballer and manager}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox football biography
| name          = {{small|[[Knight Bachelor|Sir]]}}<br>Walter Winterbottom<br>{{small|[[Order of the British Empire|CBE]]}}
| image         = Walter Winterbottom, Estadio, 1953-06-06 (525).jpg
| caption       = Winterbottom in 1953
| fullname      = Walter Winterbottom
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1913|3|31|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Oldham]], England
| death_date    = {{death date and age|2002|2|16|1913|3|31|df=y}}
| death_place   = [[Guildford]], England
| position      = [[Midfielder|Half-back]]
| height        = 6 ft 0 in<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/sunday-dispatch-football-guide-1936-v-di/134566111/ |title=Manchester United. Weak positions improved |newspaper=Sunday Dispatch Football Guide |location=London |date=23 August 1936 |page=v |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
| youthyears1   = |youthclubs1 = [[Manchester United F.C.|Manchester United]]
| years1        = 1936–1938 |clubs1 = [[Manchester United F.C.|Manchester United]] |caps1 = 26 |goals1 = 0
| manageryears1 = 1946–1962 |managerclubs1 = [[England national football team|England]]
| manageryears2 = 1952      |managerclubs2 = [[Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic football team|Great Britain]]
}}
'''Sir Walter Winterbottom''' (31 March 1913&nbsp;– 16 February 2002) was an English [[association football|football]] player and coach. He was the first manager of the [[England national football team|England national team]] (1946–1962) and Director of Coaching for [[The Football Association]] (the FA). He resigned from the FA in 1962 to become General Secretary of the [[Central Council of Physical Recreation]] (CCPR) and was appointed as the first director of the [[Sports Council]] in 1965. He was knighted for his services to sport in 1978 when he retired. The [[Football Association]] marked the 100th anniversary of Winterbottom's birth by commissioning a bust which was unveiled by [[Roy Hodgson]] at [[St George's Park National Football Centre|St George's Park]] on 23 April 2013 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the development of English football.

==Early years==
[[File:Walter Winterbottom.jpg|thumb|Bust of Walter Winterbottom at St George's Park]]
Born in [[Oldham]], [[Lancashire]], Walter Winterbottom was the only son of James Winterbottom, a ring frame fitter in a textile machine works.<ref name="Anthony 2008">{{cite book|last=Anthony|first=Mason|title=New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year=2008}}</ref> At the age of 12 he was awarded a scholarship to Oldham High School where he excelled. He won a bursary to Chester Diocesan Teachers Training College,<ref name="Anthony 2008"/> graduating as the top student in 1933 and took a teaching post at the Alexandra Road School, Oldham. Whilst teaching he played football for Royton Amateurs and then [[Mossley A.F.C.|Mossley]]<ref name="Anthony 2008"/> where he was spotted by [[Manchester United F.C.|Manchester United]]. He signed for United as a part-time professional in 1936 but continued teaching.<ref name="Anthony 2008"/> In his first season (1936/37) at Manchester United he showed great promise, playing 21 first team League games and two FA cup games, appearing as wing half and centre half. But in the following two seasons he made only four first team appearances.<ref name="Anthony 2008"/> and 41 Central League appearances, his playing career effectively ended by a spinal disease, later diagnosed as ankylosing spondylitis.<ref name="Anthony 2008"/> Whilst still playing for Manchester United he left his teaching position to study at [[Carnegie College of Physical Education]], [[Leeds]]. On graduating he was appointed as a lecturer.<ref name="Anthony 2008"/>

During World War II Winterbottom served as an officer in the Royal Air Force, reaching the rank of wing commander and working at the Air Ministry with overall responsibility for training PE instructors at home and overseas. He was also a guest player with [[Chelsea F.C.|Chelsea]]<ref name="Anthony 2008"/> and ran coaching courses for the FA at grammar schools in London. In 1946 [[Stanley Rous]], who was the secretary of The Football Association, persuaded the FA council to appoint Winterbottom as the FA's first Director of Coaching and suggested he take on the additional responsibility of being the first England team manager.<ref name="Anthony 2008"/>

==England team manager==
Walter Winterbottom has the distinction of being England's first, youngest and longest serving England team manager; he is also the only England manager to have had no previous professional managerial experience. In all matches in which he was in charge, England played 139, won 78, drew 33, and lost 28, scoring 383 and conceding 196. At home England lost six matches in sixteen years. England won the [[Home International Championship|British Home Championship]] in thirteen out of his sixteen seasons (seven times outright and six times sharing top place). In the [[FIFA World Cup|World Cup]] tournament England qualified on all four occasions, reaching the quarter-finals twice, playing 28 matches, winning 15, drawing 7 and losing 6; goals for 75 against 35 (including World Cup qualifying matches).<ref>{{cite web|title=englandfootballonline.com|url=https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=englandfootballonline|access-date=23 March 2021|archive-date=7 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221007130311/https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=&q=englandfootballonline&google_abuse=GOOGLE_ABUSE_EXEMPTION%3DID%3D0a3441ec14d8ef88:TM%3D1665147791:C%3D%3E:IP%3D207.241.225.158-:S%3DjpYptG8nmMVEjzDMKice_A%3B+path%3D/%3B+domain%3Dgoogle.com%3B+expires%3DFri,+07-Oct-2022+16:03:11+GMT|url-status=live}}</ref>

Although he had coaching and managerial responsibilities, Winterbottom never had the power to pick his own team and it was instead chosen by a selection committee.<ref name="Anthony 2008"/> Over time his technical knowledge increasingly influenced selectors. Finally, prior to [[Alf Ramsey]]'s arrival in 1962, he convinced the FA that the team manager must have sole control of selection.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dave|first=Bowler|title=Alf Ramsey:Winning isn't Everything|year=1999}}</ref>
During his time Winterbottom repeatedly warned the English football establishment that countries in Continental Europe and South America were overtaking England and that English football had to change. His sixteen years as England team manager helped greatly in creating a modern and competitive national team and four years after his departure in 1966 England won the World Cup. His innovations included the introduction of England B, Under 23, youth and schoolboy teams<ref name="Mason 2008">{{cite book|last=Mason|first=Anthony|title=New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year=2008}}</ref> providing players with continuity and experience in international football before being selected for the full England team.

Notable victories during his tenure were 10—0 away to Portugal in 1947, 4—0 away to Italy in 1948, 3—1 at home to recently crowned World Champions West Germany in 1954, 4—2 at home to Brazil in 1956 and 9—3 at home to Scotland in 1961. Notable defeats were [[1949 England v Ireland football match|losing 2–0 to the Republic of Ireland at Goodison Park]], [[United States v England (1950 FIFA World Cup)|losing 1—0 to the USA]] in the [[1950 FIFA World Cup|1950 World Cup]] and [[Match of the Century (1953 England v Hungary football match)|6—3 at home to Hungary in 1953]], when England lost their unbeaten home record to a foreign team at Wembley, followed by a [[Hungary 7–1 England (1954 association football friendly)|7—1 away defeat to the same team]] in 1954.

Also while he was manager, England visited Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, the Soviet Union, United States and Uruguay for the first time.

===FIFA World Cup record===
Winterbottom led England to four consecutive World Cup finals, a record subsequently equalled only by [[Helmut Schön]] of West Germany. England entered the World Cup for the first time in 1950, qualifying for the [[1950 FIFA World Cup|tournament in Brazil]] by winning the British Home Championship. England had never before played in South America. They beat Chile by 2–0 but [[United States 1–0 England (1950 FIFA World Cup)|lost 1—0 to the USA]] and 1—0 to Spain to be eliminated in the first round.
Winterbottom again led England to qualification in [[1954 FIFA World Cup|Switzerland in 1954]] by winning the British Home championship. A 4—4 draw against Belgium and a 2—0 victory against Switzerland took them to the quarter-finals where they were beaten 4—2 by the defending champions, Uruguay.

England qualified for the [[1958 FIFA World Cup]] in Sweden with wins over the Republic of Ireland and Denmark, with a team that had lost only once in 17 games. Three months before the tournament began the [[Munich air disaster]] robbed the team of key players from Manchester United: [[Roger Byrne]], [[Tommy Taylor]] and [[Duncan Edwards]] died. England drew against the USSR, Brazil and Austria but lost to the Soviet Union in a playoff for a quarter-final place.

Winterbottom again led his team to qualification for the [[1962 FIFA World Cup|1962 World Cup]] in Chile with wins over Portugal and Luxembourg. After progressing from their group on [[goal average]], England reached the quarter-finals but were beaten 3—1 by the eventual winners, Brazil.

===FA Director of Coaching===
Although Winterbottom is best known as the England team manager, it is in coaching that he made important contributions to the development of English football. He made no secret of his belief that his job as Director of Coaching was the more important of his two roles at the FA.<ref>{{cite news|title=BBC Radio, 1963, People Today|year=1963}}</ref>

When he joined the FA in 1946, club directors, managers and players were cynical about the need for coaching<ref>{{cite book|last=Mason|first=Anthony|title=New Oxford Dictionary Biography|year=2008}}</ref> but Winterbottom had a passion for coaching and a vision of how it should develop.
He soon created a national coaching scheme with summer residential courses at Lilleshall, Shropshire, and persuaded some of his international players to take the courses that led to exams for the FA preliminary and full coaching badges. This gave the scheme credibility. They developed their teaching skills by coaching in schools and then moved into part-time coaching positions in junior clubs. He gathered around him a cadre of young FA staff coaches: men like [[Bill Nicholson (footballer)|Bill Nicholson]], [[Don Howe]], [[Alan Brown (English footballer)|Alan Brown]], [[Ron Greenwood]], [[Dave Sexton]], [[Malcolm Allison]], [[Joe Mercer]], [[Vic Buckingham]], [[Jimmy Hill]] and [[Bobby Robson]]. Over time a new breed of managers emerged in the League clubs and began to change attitudes to coaching.

Winterbottom's courses were expanded to include professional players, referees, schoolmasters, club trainers, schoolboys and youth leaders. In addition to [[Lilleshall Hall|Lilleshall]] they were held at [[Loughborough College]], Carnegie College, [[Bisham Abbey]] and [[Birmingham University]]. In 1947 three hundred had taken the full coaching award and the numbers of qualified coaches grew each year.

The courses attracted international participation and praise. Winterbottom was regarded by many as a leading technical thinker and exponent of association football, of his generation, in the world and lectured internationally.

He inspired a new generation of managers, most notably [[Ron Greenwood]] and [[Bobby Robson]], who graduated through every level of coaching, both eventually becoming England team manager.

===Criticism===
In assessing Winterbottom's tenure as England manager, Goldblatt writes that "[Winterbottom] introduced a measure of tactical thinking and discussion to the England squad, though his inability to anticipate or learn significantly from the Hungarian debacle suggests that his grasp of tactics and communication with the players was limited."<ref name="goldblatt">{{cite book |title=The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Soccer |first=David |last=Goldblatt |publisher=Penguin |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-59448-296-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i1158WHUTvwC |page=443 |access-date=19 June 2018 |archive-date=7 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221007130300/https://books.google.com/books?id=i1158WHUTvwC |url-status=live }}</ref> William Baker writes that Winterbottom, because of his "upper-class origins [sic]", could not "effectively instruct, much less inspire, working-class footballers."<ref name="baker">{{cite book |title=Sports in the Western world |first=William Joseph |last=Baker|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=1988|isbn=0-252-06042-3|url=https://archive.org/details/sportsinwesternw00bake|url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/sportsinwesternw00bake/page/308 308]}}</ref> Football journalist [[Brian Glanville]] said in an interview: "I got on very well with Walter Winterbottom, but he was a rotten manager."<ref>{{cite web | url= http://thesetpieces.com/interviews/vox-box-brian-glanville/ | title= Vox in the Box: Brian Glanville | work=The Set Pieces | access-date=15 April 2019 | first=Iain | last=MacIntosh| date= 7 January 2015 }}</ref>

===Publishing===
Winterbottom was also responsible for the publishing at the FA. The first coaching bulletin was launched in 1946 and this became the ''FA Bulletin'' and then the ''FA News''. The ''FA Year Book'' was introduced in 1948, along with the ''FA Book for Boys'' annual.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mason, Tony|first=Holt, Richard|title=Sport in Britain 1945–2000}}</ref> The first coaching films and film strips followed in 1950.

An important landmark was the publication of Winterbottom's book, ''Soccer Coaching'', the first modern soccer coaching manual. This was followed by three more books, ''Skilful Soccer'', ''Modern Soccer'' and ''Training for Soccer''.

==Sports administrator==
In 1962 Winterbottom resigned from the FA and took up an appointment as General Secretary of the [[Central Council of Physical Recreation]]<ref name="Mason 2008"/> and two years later became the director of the newly formed [[Sports Council]]. He stepped onto the wider stage of sport and emerged to have a profound effect on sport in Britain during the second half of the twentieth century.<ref>{{cite book|last=Holt, Richard|first=Mason, Anthony|title=Sport in Britain 1945–2000}}</ref>

===Central Council of Physical Recreation===
At the Central Council of Physical Education (CCPR) Winterbottom worked to provide coaches and better facilities for sports governing bodies. He soon became involved in the ongoing political debate about the recommendations of the 1960 Report of the [[Baron Wolfenden|Wolfenden]] Committee on Sport, which had recommended the establishment of a Sports Council responsible for distributing government money to sport. He was in favour but the CCPR was divided on the issue. In 1965 the Government under set up a Sports Council and Winterbottom was seconded to become the first director of the Sports Council<ref name="Anthony 2008"/> with [[Denis Howell]] as his chairman.

===Sports Council===
Winterbottom believed that participation in a sport played a much more important role in society that was generally accepted. For 16 years he battled to win significantly more investment in sport from national and local government to support a Sport for All campaign. Despite a harsh economic climate great progress was made in providing new facilities. In ten years 499 sports centres were built and 524 new swimming pools.<ref name="Coghlan">{{cite book |last=Coghlan |first=John |title=Sport and British Politics since 1960}}</ref> Under his leadership sports governing bodies were helped to develop more professional organisations and provide more coaches. He conceived the idea of the Sports Aid Foundation, raising money from industry to back young elite sportsmen and women with Olympic medal winning chances.

He was a member of the [[Council of Europe]] and Chairman of the Committee for the Development of Sport and was influential in the acceptance of the Sport For All concept by Canada and UNESCO.<ref name="Coghlan"/>

==Later life==
In 1978, after reaching the age of 65, Winterbottom retired from the Sports Council and was knighted for his services to sport. He became an advisor to the British government on ways in which British manufacturers of sports equipment could work with foreign firms. In 1979, he visited Australia and New Zealand to help their governments to support sport in the community.

He was head of the FIFA Technical Studies Group for the World Cup in 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978 and a member in 1982.<ref>{{cite news|title=Public FIFA Records}}</ref> In 1985 The Winterbottom Report, an FA enquiry into artificial playing surfaces was published and in 1987–89 he was a member of the Football League enquiry into artificial pitches.<ref>{{cite web|title=Indianfootball.com|url=http://www.indianfootball.de/features/column/column-santosh200703.html|access-date=3 December 2012|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304061700/http://www.indianfootball.de/features/column/column-santosh200703.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

He died in the [[Royal Surrey County Hospital|Royal Surrey Hospital]] after an operation for cancer on 16 February 2002. He was 88 years old. A memorial service was held at St. Nicolas Church, [[Cranleigh]], Surrey on 1 March 2002.

==Managerial statistics==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|-
!rowspan=2 width=60|Team
!rowspan=2 width=50|Nat
!rowspan=2 width=100|From
!rowspan=2 width=70|To
!colspan=8|Record
|-
!width=40|G
!width=40|W
!width=40|D
!width=40|L
!width=40|GF
!width=40|GA
!width=40|+/–
!width=50|Win %
|-
|align=left|[[England national football team|England]]
|{{flagicon|England}}
|align=left|September 1946
|align=left|July 1962
{{WDLtot|139|78|33|28|for=385|against=195|diff=yes}}
|}

===Honours===
*[[British Home Championship]]
**Champions: 1947, 1948, 1950, 1952 (shared), 1953 (shared), 1954, 1955, 1956 (shared), 1957, 1958 (shared), 1959 (shared), 1960 (shared), 1961
**Runners-up: 1949, 1951

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{YouTube|79cwwFYpKYw|Statue of the first ever England manager, Sir Walter Winterbottom, unveiled at St. George's Park}}
*{{YouTube|WNasflr71iE|Sky Sports Interview 31 March 2013 Graham Morse}}

== Further reading==
* Graham Morse: ''Sir Walter Winterbottom – The Father of Modern English Football'', Kings Road Publishing, 2013.
{{English Football Hall of Fame}}
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| bg = white
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{{England squad 1950 FIFA World Cup}}
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{{England squad 1958 FIFA World Cup}}
{{England squad 1962 FIFA World Cup}}
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{{Great Britain football squad 1952 Summer Olympics}}
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{{England national football team managers}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Winterbottom, Walter}}
[[Category:1913 births]]
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[[Category:1950 FIFA World Cup managers]]
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[[Category:20th-century English sportsmen]]
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[[Category:Mossley A.F.C. players]]
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