Sir Stanley Ford Rous CBE (25 April 1895 – 18 July 1986) was an English football referee and the 6th President of FIFA, serving from 1961 to 1974.

Rous was born in Mutford near Lowestoft in East Suffolk and attended Sir John Leman School in Beccles.

He trained as a teacher in Beccles before serving in World War I as a non-commissioned officer in the 272nd Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery (East Anglian) in France, Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon.

[1][2] After the war Rous attended St Luke's College in Exeter and then became a sports teacher at Watford Boys Grammar School.

[1] He rose to the top tier of the game when he was appointed to referee the 1934 FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, where Manchester City defeated Portsmouth by 2 goals to 1.

In 1973 Rous insisted the USSR team play a World Cup qualifier against Chile in the aftermath of General Pinochet's military coup, at a time when thousands of political prisoners were being held in the Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos sports stadium.

The USSR however refused to do so and Chile qualified automatically for the 1974 World Cup, where they failed to advance from a group containing both West and East Germany and Australia.

[1] He is buried with his wife Lady Rous in the Holy Trinity Church in the Lickey Hills, close to both Bromsgrove and Birmingham.