When International Teams were selected by committees

[Satchmo Distel]

Gary Imlach's excellent book on his dad has a chapter on the 1958 World Cup that shows the utter farce of having selectors pick the team. For the Paraguay game, for example, they originally included two players who were injured.

I have two queries:

1) Were the home nations the only ones who picked teams in this way?

2) Why did it take so long for the system to be replaced?

[1974ddr]

Can't have a nil response thread Satchmo.
I had no idea what the answer to this question was, but a cursory glance at wikipedia tells me that Germany's side was selected by committee from 1908 to 1926, France used a selection committee till 1964 and Italy continued the practice on and off till 1967, so it would seem that it was pretty widespread, at least in Europe.
As for why it took so long to change, perhaps all FAs are resistant to innovation? Or maybe once the foreign associations saw how, given full responsibility for selection, Alf Ramsey had made England the best team in the world, they all decided to copy the English way?

[ursus arctos]

It reflected the then-dominant belief among those running the game that international sport was too “important” to be to left to plebs, an “ethos” that still infects “the Olympic movement”.

[Sam]

Argentina had a director técnico (manager) from early on, but did have a sort of committee at the 1959 Copa América: José Barreiro, Victorio Spinetto and José Della Torre managed as a trio (and Argentina won the cup).