Fifa: International governing body of association football
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA /ˈfiːfə/; French for International Federation of Association Football) is the organization that controls international football (also called association football).
This article needs to be updated. (February 2016) |
The organization’s main buildings are in Zürich, Switzerland. FIFA organizes major international football tournaments, and the most famous one is the FIFA World Cup, which has been held since 1930. FIFA was established on May 21, 1905 in Paris and has 209 national associations as its members. The organization’s official languages are English, French, German and Spanish.
Fédération Internationale de Football Association | |
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 Map of the members of FIFA according to their confederation | |
| Abbreviation | FIFA |
|---|---|
| Motto | For the Game. For the World. |
| Founded | 21 May 1904 |
| Type | Federation of national associations |
| Headquarters | Zürich, Switzerland |
| Coordinates | 47°22′53″N 8°34′28″E / 47.38139°N 8.57444°E |
Region served | Worldwide |
Membership | 211 national associations |
Official languages | English French German Spanish |
| Gianni Infantino | |
Senior Vice-President | David Chung |
Vice-Presidents | Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa Aleksander Čeferin David Gill Alejandro Domínguez Ahmad Ahmad Victor Montagliani |
Secretary General | Fatma Samoura |
| Affiliations | International Olympic Committee International Football Association Board |
Staff | 103 |
| Website | www |
The president of FIFA is currently Gianni Infantino, serving since 26 February 2016.
The most powerful organ of FIFA is the FIFA Congress, which is an assembly made up of representatives from each member association. The Congress holds a regular meeting once a year, and since 1998 an additional meeting has been held every year. Only the Congress can pass changes to FIFA's laws.
The Congress decides whether FIFA should accept new national associations and elects the President of FIFA, its General Secretary and the other members of FIFA's executive committee. The President and General Secretary take care of what goes on within and around FIFA. The executive committee, with the President as its head, is responsible for deciding the dates, locations and format of tournaments.
Also, there are six regional confederations recognized by FIFA which take care of the game in the seven different continents of the world. National associations must be members of both FIFA and their regional confederation in order for their teams to compete in FIFA's competitions. The six confederations are AFC (Asian Football Confederation in Asia and Australia), CAF (Confédération Africaine de Football in Africa), CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football in North America and Central America), CONMEBOL (Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol in South America), OFC (Oceania Football Confederation in Oceania) and UEFA (Union Européenne de Football Association in Europe).
Related pages
Further reading
- Paul Darby, Africa, Football and Fifa: Politics, Colonialism, and Resistance (Sport in the Global Society), Frank Cass Publishers 2002, ISBN 0-7146-8029-X.
- John Sugden, FIFA and the Contest For World Football, Polity Press 1998, ISBN 0-7456-1661-5.
- Jim Trecker, Charles Miers, J. Brett Whitesell, ed., Women's Soccer: The Game and the Fifa World Cup, Universe 2000, Revised Edition, ISBN 0-7893-0527-5.
References
Other websites
- Official website (in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, and Japanese)
- FIFA Laws of the Game Archived 2007-09-01 at the Wayback Machine
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