The premature public notice that established the
Ethiopian Sports Confederation.
The untold history of Ethiopian Sports.
The fourth and final phase of the foundation process was a premature public notice that established The Ethiopian Sports Confederation and the appointment of a Greek National to replace the Ethiopian Yidnekatchew Tessema as the Chief Executive of Ethiopian Sports.
On 31 October, 1949, a surprise public notice declaring the establishment of the Ethiopian Sports Confederation was printed on the official Gazette number 111. The public notice neither recognized sport as a Government organization nor did it allocate budget for its development. As can be seen in the following lines, the sole and obvious objective of this notice was indirect control of by then already popular football.
- A Confederation is an association of two or more entities. In this particular case, football, the only federation at the time, had no partner to Confederate with. The premature decree ignored the minimum legal prerequisite and established a Sports Confederation in a country where there was only one Federation!!
- Furthermore, it was a Greek coffee trader by the name Edward Virvilis, who was inexplicably appointed to manage the new Sports Confederation. The Public notice also instructed the barely surviving football federation to pay1000 Birr monthly Salary to Mr. Virvilis.
- This also meant indirect demotion of the Ethiopian Yidnekatchew Tessema, who founded the sports office without any Government support.
Why was the job given to a foreigner?
Mr. Virvilis was not a new comer. He had served as technical assistant in the Sports office which was dissolved a few months earlier; but was not elected by the Clubs during the Third phase proper restructuring of the Football Federation. He was the only expatriate technical assistant not elected, the two others Engineer Naldi and Piero Conte were voted in to serve in the technical, referees and discipline committees. Replacing Virvilis was Captain Niskannen; later Major and the successful coach of Athletics legends, Abebe Bikila and Mamo Wolde.
Therefore, the establishment of a premature Sports Confederation was obviously custom made, to impose him on the Federation as a Government appointee. But why?? Though Yidnekatchew preferred to explain this strange episode in the history of Ethiopian sport, as a mere indirect control of football, orchestrated by the officials whose first attempt to directly control it was defeated; he also understood that these officials could not on their own influence issuance of a Decree contradicting the nine month young Imperial order that acknowledged the autonomy of the football Federation.
The contribution of Mr. Virvilis to Ethiopian and/ or International sports, both before and after this Public Notice was nowhere near that of the Ethiopian Yidnekatchew Tessema. Thus, competence was not the issue.
In order to understand the rational, one must have some background history of Ethiopian Politics of those days. In this regard, it must be mentioned here, that apart from the Prime Minister Bitwoded Haile Ghiorgis; Yidnekatchew's father, Tessema Eshete, was the only other member of the Ministerial Council demoted and banished into exile subsequent to the deposition of Lij Iyassu on September 27-1916. Even on completion of his seven years exile, Yidnekatchew's father had through his elegant poems, continued to provoke the Emperor, by exposing the deep secrets of the Palace intrigues and deceptions that brought an end to the Reigns of Iyassu and Zewditu.
In light of this animosity between Emperor Haile Sellassie and Yidnekatchew’s father Tessema Eshete, as well as the trade mark, distinctive style of the Emperor in dealing with political opponents; it was clear from the outset, that the decision was meant to punish the father not the son. Yidnekatchew was therefore victim of a political feud that started years before he was born.
Thus, despite persistent appeals from the otherwise very influential government officials; namely, H.E. Colonel Tamirat Yigezu and H.E. General Merid Mengesha; the Emperor had hesitated a long eleven years before he finally decided to replace the Greek National by the Ethiopian Yidnekatchew Tessema.
The era of Mr. Eduard Virvilis.
Virvilis and Yidnekatchew, group photo at the Ethiopian Embassy in Athens.
Having said this much about the strange appointment and dismissal of the foreigner, it is appropriate to look into the eleven years of Secretary General Eduard Virvilis; as they are highly relevant to the history of Yidnekatchew Tessema in particular; and Ethiopian Sports in general.
Only days after his appointment as the new boss of Ethiopian sports, Mr. Virvilis issued the following instructions to the Ethiopian football federation.
- Submit all the regulations and by laws adopted by the Federation so it can be reviewed and approved by the Confederation!!
- Suspend all football competitions until the regulations and by laws are approved.
- After lengthy deliberations on all the articles in the statutes, the most significant change made by Mr. Virvilis stated “ A registered player can not be a member of the Federation”. It was apparently aimed at Yidnekatchew Tessema.
- The founder of The first Ethiopian Sports Office, the man behind the establishment of the only Ethiopian Federation (Football); and its first General Manager, opted to continue playing his football and resigned from his post. He was thus expelled from the Executive Committee and given the much less significant job of office administrator and accountant.
Furthermore, the football federation was instructed to pay 20% of its income to the sports confederation and 50% of all its profits to the municipality of Addis Ababa, as repayment of the cost for the first phase construction works on the current Addis Ababa Stadium. The federation was also renamed the "Addis Ababa football federation", on the grounds that it was organizing competitions only for clubs in Addis Ababa. If the same logic was applied, the Ethiopian Sports Confederation which had no activity outside of the capital, should have automatically been renamed the Addis Ababa Sports Confederation, but, "some are always more equal" than others. Mission accomplished!! Satisfied Mr.Virvilis, permitted resumption of football competitions he suspended for six months, and returned to his coffee trade in Djibouti.
Additional provocation came when the municipality of Addis Ababa took the football federation to the high court demanding that it pay 50% of all the gate income it collected over the years towards the cost of the first phase construction works on the Addis Ababa stadium. This claim was however dismissed when the presiding British judge after investigating the accounts of the federation decided that the municipality should have demanded the money at the beginning and not waited until the amount exceeded the payment capacity of the federation.
These excessive humiliations by a foreigner profoundly hurt Yidnekatchew Tessema, but he did not give up; he steadfastly continued performing the relatively insignificant job given to him as office administrator and accountant in the football federation while at the same time playing his football, both for Saint George and the National Team.
The National football team that played Djibouti in the country's first International match on 05 December 1947.
Ethiopia defeated Djibouti 5-0 in this first encounter, team Captain Yidnekatchew receives the cup from Emperor Haile Sellassie.
Captain of the National team that lost 6-3 to Swedish Club Norkoping in November 1950.
Yidnekatchew played the first 15 matches of the National team both at home and abroad.
The Melbourne Olympics
When Ethiopia decided to participate in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, it was only the football federation that was affiliated to its international federation in 1953. Basket ball which was for the expatriate community only; had a federation at home but was not registered with its international federation. All the others were not yet established at home, let alone register with international federations. Thus, in order to fulfil the requirements of the International Olympic Committee, Mr.Virvilis registered the practically non existing Athletics, Cycling, Box and Basket Ball federations and with help from the international federations he obtained back dated receipts of membership fees. These evidences together with the public notice that established the confederation in October of 1949 were submitted to the International Olympic Committee. Although it was clear that we did not have five internationally registered federations at the time, Ethiopia was allowed to participate in the Melbourne Olympics of 1956. Paradoxically, ten years later, it was Yidnekatchew Tessema who was accused of registering the non existing federations to cheat the International Olympic Committee. Click here to listen to his reply in Amharic♫
Colonel Coslof Bogosian and Mr.Eduard Virvilis were the leaders of this first Ethiopian Olympic team which travelled eight days to Melbourne with an Air Force DC 3. Bashaye Feleke the Marathonist, Geremew Denboba the cyclist, Negussie Roba the short distance runner (latter coach of the National Athletics team), Mamo Wolde the middle distance runner ( who won gold in the Marathon and silver in the 10,000 meters in Mexico 68 and bronze in the marathon in Munich 72), were among the members of this first Ethiopian Olympic team.
Great cyclist Geremew Denboba registered the best result for Ethiopia, at the Melbourne Olympics.
Ethiopia did not win any medal in these games, but the Sports Confederation was recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the National Olympic Committee of the country. This status continued for 10 years, until a National Olympic Committee was formally established in 1966. It must be mentioned here that the back dated documents conveniently arranged by Mr. Virvilis in order to fulfil International Olympic Committee requirements for participation in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, have mislead some to believe that Athletics was the first Ethiopian sports federation to register with its international federation. This is not true!! The Ethiopian Football Federation was the only sports Federation that registered with F.I.F.A. three years before the Melbourne Olympics. Click here to listen to Yidnekatchew’s explanation in Amharic♫
As the 1960 Rome Olympics approached, Yidnekatchew was appointed Secretary General of the Confederation, replacing Mr. Eduard Virvilis.
Yidnekatchew and Virvilis, in the centre is H.E. Colonel Tamirat Yigezu.
Nonetheless, adamant Mr. Virvilis made the transition unnecessarily difficult. In an obvious effort to show that the job is too complicated for an Ethiopian he took a high risk gamble on the very participation of country at the 1960 Rome Olympics. His refusal of to hand over the Confederation’s documents to his successor raised legitimate concern and suspicion. Just a few months before the games were to start, Yidnekatchew discovered that Mr. Virvilis had not paid four years membership fees to the four international federations that helped Ethiopia participate in the Melbourne Olympics. This could have easily resulted in the suspension of the country from the Rome Olympics, denying it the first Olympic Gold Medal for itself and the African continent. The arrears to the International Federations of Athletics, Cycling, Box and Basket Ball were paid by the Football Federation at the last minute, but the dangerous intent of Mr.Virvilis was never investigated. This in brief was the legacy and the untold history of Mr. Edward Virvilis.
The new version on the era of Mr. Virvilis.
The supposedly official Millennium version of Ethiopian sports history, reduces the complications surrounding the appointment and the era of Mr. Virvilis, to a mere genuine effort from the part of the Emperor to ensure Ethiopia's eventual participation in the Olympic Games. In their attempt to justify the unjustifiable; the authors have unnecessarily gone far-off the truth and associated an incident in 1924, to the premature Confederation in 1948.
Although it is true, that the Emperor,(the Crown Prince at the time), happened to be in the host country during the 1924 Paris Games, and was actually invited to the competitions by Baron Pierre De Coubertin, there is no shred of evidence to support the wild claim that this incident had anything to do with the appointment of Mr. Virvilis, twenty five years later.
On surface, this fairy tale might look like a praise to a farsighted Emperor who appointed a foreign expert for the purposes of establishing National Federations and registering them with their respective International Federations, in order to fulfil Olympic participation requirements, but, the underlying message is that routine International Federation and International Olympic Committee correspondences were beyond the Ethiopian, Yidnekatchew Tessema. Contrary to this claim, Ethiopians were in charge of more important Government Ministries at this point in the Country's history; in fact, Mr. Virvilis himself, was working under Ethiopian Board Chairmen during his twelve years as the Secretary General of the Confederation.
The millennium version has deliberately avoided basic verification procedures; historical facts, regarding Government budget to the National Sports Confederation, the beginning of official domestic competitions in each sport, the actual establishment dates of National Federations, the actual dates of their registration with respective International Federations, names of the members of the Federations, are all missing, or hugely distorted. On the issue of Athletics, the backdated letter issued by I.A.A.F. on January 12 1954, was meant to assist Ethiopia's participation in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, moreover, even in this backdated letter, it was the Sports Confederation not the nonexistent Ethiopian Athletics Federation that was recognized as a member of the I.A.A.F.. This should not and can not be misused to change the history of Ethiopian Sports. There was no National Athletics Federation before 1961, let alone true International registration in 1948. The actual founding of the Ethiopian Athletics Federation was in February 1961, ( Yekatit 27 1953 Ethiopian Calendar) to be exact.
In conclusion, if indeed the primary assignment of Mr. Virvilis was establishing National Federations, Why did he fail to found a single Federation during the long twelve years he was in office, (1948-1960)??
New Challenges to Yidnekatchew as Secretary General of the Ethiopian Sports Confederation.
