IT is a matter of regret that Scotland does not feature in either the World Cup or Wimbledon final tomorrow, however, a measure of consolation may be derived from the fact that the acknowledged ‘father figure’ of Russian football was of Scottish heritage, writes Jack Davidson.
Arthur Davidovitch MacPherson, born in 1870 in St Petersburg, was a grandson of Scot Murdoch MacPherson, and also played a leading part in the establishment of tennis in the country. Six years ago at a gala dinner to celebrate the centenary of the Russian Football Union – attended by many of the world’s top football celebrities – Russian leader Vladimir Putin toasted MacPherson, the inaugural President of the Russian Football Union between 1912 and 1914, for his immeasurable contribution to the sport’s history in his country. In what has been widely acclaimed as a highly successful tournament, it is gratifying to acknowledge the Scottish connection in the game’s development in the host country. Indeed, had the frequently expressed English fans’ wish for ‘it’s coming home’ been fulfilled, might it not have been appropriate for the Jules Rimet trophy first to make a detour north of the border? Many may be relieved that remains rhetorical.
It was in St Petersburg that football was first played in the late nineteenth century. An influential British ‘colony’ had settled there and the game had been exported via workers brought over to operate textile mills and other industries. By the 1890’s there was a ‘Nevska’ team of Scottish players from the local Samson weaving mills and another Scottish team, ‘the Scottish Circle of Amateurs’. MacPherson was by this time a successful businessman and an enthusiastic sports lover who, as well as playing football, was a keen oarsman and tennis player. He was active in promoting football and shortly after the first official St Petersburg League was formed in 1901, ‘Nevska’ winning the inaugural title, he served two terms as chairman. His reputation in sporting circles grew as he also became involved in developing tennis, founding the first All Russia Tennis Union in 1903 and organising the first national tournament in 1907 at the city’s Krestovsky club. Later he became President of the Russian Tennis union. By 1911 he was elected a member of the country’s first Olympic Committee to prepare for participation in the 1912 Stockholm Games and that same year was appointed the first President of the Russia Football Union. Their first game in an international tournament came at these Olympics against Finland, losing 2-1.
In 1914, for his services to sport, Tsar Nicholas II awarded him ‘the Order of Saint Stanislaus’, the first time such an honour had been bestowed on anyone for sport.
MacPherson’s grandfather Murdoch, an engineer and small Clyde shipyard owner, emigrated to St Petersburg in the late 1830’s to work as a naval engineer at the service of the Tsar, till in 1850 he set up the Baltic Ironworks and Shipbuilding yard. One of his sons David was born in 1842 and Arthur was born to him and mother Ann in 1870.
The advent of world war, and later the Russian Revolution, not only restricted MacPherson’s sporting activities but heralded personal danger for him. Tennis was considered a ‘bourgeois’ sport, and held in disdain by the Bolsheviks. In 1919 he was arrested on trumped up charges of ‘seeking relief for the British colony in St Petersburg’. After being taken to prison in Moscow, he died from typhoid and his remains are buried in Smolensk Lutheran cemetery in St Petersburg.
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