Ernest Witty Cotton was an Anglo-Spanish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

, tennis player and businessman. In 1899 Witty, a Spanish national tennis champion, became a founding member of the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona and in the early 1900s he played football for

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

. He was also a successful trader and his family company, the Witty Group, continues to operate today. He was the younger brother of Arthur Witty.

Early years

Witty was the son of Frederick Witty, a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

entrepreneur, who settled in Barcelona. Frederick, who belonged to a

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

family, initially intended to emigrate to Argentina but was persuaded to go to Spain by friends. In 1873 he founded his own shipping agency under the name of F. Witty, subsequently establishing business links between Spain and the United Kingdom. Ernest and his brother Arthur were educated at Merchant Taylors' School in

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

, where sport was regarded as a major part of a young man's development. On their return to Barcelona the two brothers joined their father's company which now became known as Witty Sociedad Anonima, Witty S.A.

FC Barcelona

Ernest and Arthur returned to Spain with a love of sports. Unable to play

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

due to a lack of suitable pitches, the Wittys began to organise

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

games between company teams made up of employees. In 1899, Ernest also became a founding member of the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona. Ernest played

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

with, among others,

Joan Gamper Hans Max Gamper-Haessig (; 22 November 1877 – 30 July 1930), commonly known as Joan Gamper (), was a Swiss-born football executive and versatile athlete. He founded football clubs in Switzerland and Spain, most notably Barcelona and Zürich. ...

, and when Gamper founded FC Barcelona in October 1899, the Witty brothers quickly became involved. They used their company to imports regulation balls, referees whistles, and nets from England. Legend also has it that the Witty brothers also imported the legendary club colours, the ''blaugrana'', from the original colours used by Merchant Taylors' rugby team. However,

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Basel, in the Basel-Stadt, Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been List of Swiss footba ...

and other Swiss clubs that Gamper played for and his home canton of

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

have all been credited and/or claimed to be the inspiration. In 1905 Witty, together with

Romà Forns Romà Forns Saldaña (died 26 April 1942) was a Spanish footballer and manager. He made his debut as a footballer in late 1902 playing one season for Irish FC but spent the rest of his career with FC Barcelona and the Catalan XI, always as a ...

, also helped FC Barcelona win its first

Catalan football championship The Catalan football championship ''(Campionat de Catalunya)'' was a football competition in Catalonia and the first football league in Spain before La Liga was established in 1929. In December 1900, Alfons Macaya, the president of Hispania AC, o ...

Honours

Footballer

FC Barcelona * Catalan Champions: 1904–05

Sources

*''Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football'' (2003), Phil Ball. * ''Barça: A People's Passion'' (1998), Jimmy Burns.

External links

Ernest Witty at the Witty Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Witty, Ernest Year of birth missing Year of death missing Businesspeople from Catalonia Footballers from Barcelona English businesspeople English men's footballers FC Barcelona players People educated at Merchant Taylors' Boys' School, Crosby Spanish businesspeople Spanish men's footballers Spanish male tennis players Spanish people of English descent Men's association football players not categorized by position