Fifa
Fifa
Fifa
FIFA
International Federation of
Association Football
(FIFA)
Website [2]
www.FIFA.com
History
The need for a single body to oversee the game became apparent at the beginning of the 20th century with the
increasing popularity of international fixtures. FIFA was founded in Paris on 21 May 1904; the French name and
acronym remain, even outside French-speaking countries. The founding members were the national associations of
Belgium, Denmark, France, The Netherlands, Spain (represented by Madrid Football Club, Spanish federation was
created in 1913), Sweden and Switzerland. Also, that same day, the German Association declared its intention of
affiliating through a telegram.
The first president of FIFA was Robert Guérin. Guérin was replaced in 1906 by Daniel Burley Woolfall from
England, by then a member association. The next tournament staged, the football competition for the 1908 Olympics
in London was more successful, despite the presence of professional footballers, contrary to the founding principles
of FIFA.
Membership of FIFA expanded beyond Europe with the application of South Africa in 1908, Argentina and Chile in
1912, and Canada and the United States in 1913.
FIFA 2
During World War I, with many players sent off to war and the possibility of travel for international fixtures severely
limited, there were few international fixtures, and the organisation's survival was in doubt. Post-war, following the
death of Woolfall, the organisation was run by Dutchman Carl Hirschmann. It was saved from extinction, but at the
cost of the withdrawal of the Home Nations (of the United Kingdom), who cited an unwillingness to participate in
international competitions with their recent World War enemies. The Home Nations later resumed their membership.
The FIFA collection is held by the National Football Museum in England.
Structure
FIFA is an association established under the Laws of Switzerland. Its headquarters are in Zurich.
FIFA's supreme body is the FIFA Congress, an assembly made up of representatives from each affiliated member
association. The Congress assembles in ordinary session once every year and, additionally, extraordinary sessions
have been held once a year since 1998. Only the Congress can pass changes to FIFA's statutes.
Congress elects the President of FIFA, its General Secretary and the other members of FIFA's Executive Committee.
The President and General Secretary are the main officeholders of FIFA, and are in charge of its daily
administration, carried out by the General Secretariat, with its staff of approximately 280 members.
FIFA's Executive Committee, chaired by the President, is the main decision-making body of the organisation in the
intervals of Congress. FIFA's worldwide organisational structure also consists of several other bodies, under
authority of the Executive Committee or created by Congress as standing committees. Among those bodies are the
Finance Committee, the Disciplinary Committee, the Referees Committee, etc.
Beside from its worldwide institutions (presidency, Executive Committee, Congress, etc.) there are six
confederations recognised by FIFA which oversee the game in the different continents and regions of the world.
National associations, and not the continental confederations, are members of FIFA. The continental confederations
are provided for in FIFA's statutes. National associations must claim membership to both FIFA and the confederation
in which their nation is geographically resident for their teams to qualify for entry to FIFA's competitions (with a few
geographic exceptions listed below):
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 and
Central America
CONMEBOL – Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol in South America
OFC – Oceania Football Confederation in Oceania
UEFA – Union of European Football Associations in Europe
Nations straddling the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia have generally had their choice of
confederation. As a result, a number of transcontinental nations including Russia, Turkey, Cyprus, Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Georgia have chosen to become part of UEFA despite the bulk of their land area being in Asia.
Israel, although lying entirely within Asia, joined UEFA in 1994, after decades of its football teams being boycotted
by many AFC countries. Kazakhstan moved from the AFC to UEFA in 2002. Australia was the latest to move from
the OFC to AFC in January 2006.
Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana have always been CONCACAF members despite their location in South
America.
In total, FIFA recognises 208 national associations and their associated men's national teams as well as 129 women's
national teams; see the list of national football teams and their respective country codes. FIFA has more member
states than the United Nations, as FIFA recognises several non-sovereign entities as distinct nations, such as the four
Home Nations within the United Kingdom or politically disputed territories such as Palestine.[3] Only 8 sovereign
FIFA 3
entities doesn't belong to FIFA (Monaco, Vatican, Micronesia, Marshall, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Palaos, Nauru).
The FIFA World Rankings are updated monthly and rank each team based on their performance in international
competitions, qualifiers, and friendly matches. There is also a world ranking for women's football, updated four
times a year.
FIFA Anthem
Since the 1994 FIFA World Cup, like the UEFA Champions League, FIFA has adopted an anthem composed by the
German composer Franz Lambert. The FIFA Anthem is played at the beginning of official FIFA sanctioned matches
and tournaments such as international friendlies, the FIFA World Cup, FIFA Women's World Cup, FIFA U-20
World Cup, FIFA U-17 World Cup, FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, FIFA Women's U-17 World Cup, FIFA Futsal
World Cup, FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, and FIFA Club World Cup.[4]
Criticism
that vote-rigging had occurred in the fight for Sepp Blatter's continued control of FIFA.
Shortly after the release of Foul! a BBC television exposé by Jennings and BBC producer Roger Corke for the BBC
news programme Panorama was broadcast. In this hour-long programme, screened on June 11, 2006, Jennings and
the Panorama team agree that Sepp Blatter was being investigated by Swiss police over his role in a secret deal to
repay more than £1m worth of bribes pocketed by football officials.
All testimonies offered in the Panorama expose were provided through a disguised voice, appearance, or both, save
one; Mel Brennan, formerly a lecturer at Towson University in the United States (and from 2001–2003 Head of
Special Projects for CONCACAF, a liaison to the e-FIFA project and a 2002 FIFA World Cup delegate), became the
first high-level football insider to go public with substantial allegations of greed, corruption, nonfeasance and
malfeasance by CONCACAF and FIFA leadership. During the Panorama exposé, Brennan—the highest-level
African-American in the history of world football governance—Jennings and many others exposed allegedly
inappropriate allocations of money at CONCACAF, and drew connections between ostensible CONCACAF
criminality and similar behaviours at FIFA. Since then, and in the light of fresh allegations of bribery and corruption
and opaque action by FIFA in late 2010,[5] both Jennings and Brennan remain highly critical of FIFA, with Brennan
calling directly for an alternative to FIFA to be considered by the stakeholders of the sport throughout the world.[6]
In a further Panorama documentary broadcast on BBC One on 29 November 2010, Jennings alleged that three senior
FIFA officials, Nicolas Leoz, Issa Hayatou and Ricardo Teixeira, had been paid huge bribes by FIFA's marketing
partner ISL between 1989 and 1999, which FIFA had failed to investigate. He claimed they appeared on a list of 175
bribes paid by ISL, totalling about $100 million. A former ISL executive said that there were suspicions within ISL
that the company was only awarded the marketing contract for successive World Cups by paying bribes to FIFA
officials. The programme also alleged that another current official, Jack Warner, has been repeatedly involved in
reselling World Cup tickets to touts; Sepp Blatter said that FIFA had not investigated the allegation because it had
not been told about it via 'official channels'.
The programme also criticized FIFA for allegedly requiring World Cup host bidding nations to agree to implement
special laws for the World Cup, including blanket tax exemption for FIFA and sponsors, and limitation of workers'
rights. It alleged that governments of bidding nations are required to keep the details of the required laws
confidential during the bidding process; but that they were revealed by the Dutch government, which refused to
agree to them, as a result of which it was told by FIFA that its bid could be adversely affected. According to the
programme, following Jennings' earlier investigations he was banned from all FIFA press conferences, for reasons he
says have not been made clear; and the accused officials failed to answer questions about his latest allegations, either
verbally or by letter.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and Andy Anson, head of England's World Cup bid, criticized the timing of
the broadcast, three days before FIFA's decision on the host for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, on the grounds that it
might damage the UK's bid; the voters included officials accused by the programme.[7] [8]
FIFA's choice to award the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, has been widely criticised
by English-speaking media.[9] [10] [11] [12] [13] It has been alleged that some FIFA inside sources insist that the
Russian kickbacks of cash and gifts given to FIFA executive members were enough to secure the Russian 2018 bid
weeks before the result was announced.[14] Sepp Blatter was widely criticised in the media for giving a warning
about the "evils of the media" in a speech to FIFA executive committee members shortly before they voted on the
hosting of the 2018 world cup, a reference to the Sunday Times exposés [15] and the Panorama investigation.[16]
FIFA 5
Video replay
FIFA does not permit video evidence during matches, although it is permitted for subsequent disciplinary
sanctions.[17] The 1970 meeting of the International Football Association Board "agreed to request the television
authorities to refrain from any slow-motion play-back which reflected, or might reflect, adversely on any decision of
the referee".[18] In 2008, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said: "Let it be as it is and let's leave [football] with errors. The
television companies will have the right to say [the referee] was right or wrong, but still the referee makes the
decision — a man, not a machine."[19]
It has been said that instant replay is needed given the difficulty of tracking the activities of 22 players on such a
large field,[20] and it has been proposed that instant replay be used in penalty incidents, fouls which lead to bookings
or red cards and whether the ball has crossed the goal line, since those events are more likely than others to be game
changing.[21]
Critics also point out that instant replay is already in use in other sports, including rugby union, cricket, American
football, Canadian football, basketball, baseball, tennis, and ice hockey.[20] [22] [23] [24] [25] As one notable proponent
of video replay, Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz has been quoted as saying that the "credibility of the game" is at
stake.[26]
An incident during a second-round game in the 2010 FIFA World Cup between England and Germany, where a shot
by Frank Lampard, which would have leveled the scores at 2–2, crossed the line but was not seen to do so by the
match officials, led FIFA officials to declare that they will re-examine the use of goal-line technology.[27] Germany
defeated England by a score of 4-1.
Sponsors
The following are the sponsors of FIFA (named "FIFA Partners"):
• Adidas
• Coca-Cola
• Emirates
• Hyundai-Kia Motors
• Sony
• VISA
References
[1] http:/ / www. fifa. com/ mm/ document/ affederation/ federation/ 01/ 24/ fifastatuten2009_e. pdf FIFA Statutes Aug 2009 see 8:1. Arabic,
Russian and Portuguese are additional languages for the Congress. In case of dispute, English language documents are taken as authoritative.
[2] http:/ / www. fifa. com/
[3] October 27, 2008 (2008-10-27). "report of first Palestinian fixture with Jordan" (http:/ / www. bruisedearth. org/ ?p=137). Bruisedearth.org. .
Retrieved 2010-12-22.
[4] "FIFA anthem" (http:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v=R9I7bn1b4oc). YouTube. . Retrieved 2010-05-19.
[5] "Fifa suspend six officials" (http:/ / www. independent. co. uk/ sport/ football/ news-and-comment/ fifa-corruption-pair-suspended-2137472.
html). The Independent (London). 18 November 2010. . Retrieved 18 November 2010.
[6] (http:/ / downloads. bbc. co. uk/ podcasts/ worldservice/ wswf/ wswf_20101120-0232a. mp3)
[7] Panorama, BBC One, 29 November 2010
[8] "Panorama: Three Fifa World Cup officials took bribe" (http:/ / www. bbc. co. uk/ news/ uk-11841783), BBC News, 29 November 2010
[9] Simon Barnes (2010-12-06). "FIFA is a gathering of nasty, mad old men" (http:/ / www. theaustralian. com. au/ news/ sport/
fifa-is-a-gathering-of-nasty-mad-old-men/ story-fn76vhk4-1225966425228). The Australian. . Retrieved 2010-12-22.
[10] Rogers, Martin. "Qatar selection adds to FIFA's ongoing folly - World Soccer - Yahoo! Sports" (http:/ / sports. yahoo. com/ soccer/
news?slug=ro-worldcupvote120210). Sports.yahoo.com. . Retrieved 2010-12-22.
[11] Seltzer, Greg (2010-12-03). "Media Reaction to World Cup Voting" (http:/ / www. philadelphiaunion. com/ news/ 2010/ 12/
media-reaction-world-cup-voting). Philadelphia Union. . Retrieved 2010-12-22.
[12] "FIFA, SAFA voting baffling: Sport: Columnists: Mark Gleeson" (http:/ / www. sport24. co. za/ Columnists/ MarkGleeson/
FIFA-SAFA-voting-baffling-20101206). Sport24.co.za. . Retrieved 2010-12-22.
[13] http:/ / www. thesun. co. uk/ sol/ homepage/ news/ 3261474/ War-on-FIFA-FA-lead-the-mutiny. html
[14] Yallop, David (2010-12-04). "England World Cup bid: how did we get it so wrong?" (http:/ / www. telegraph. co. uk/ sport/ football/
8181639/ England-World-Cup-bid-how-did-we-get-it-so-wrong. html). Telegraph. . Retrieved 2010-12-22.
[15] "BBC News - Fifa launches investigation into vote-selling claims" (http:/ / www. bbc. co. uk/ news/ 11559801). Bbc.co.uk. 2010-10-17. .
Retrieved 2010-12-22.
[16] Press Association. "England World Cup chief: Fifa's Sepp Blatter spoke of 'evils of media' | Football | guardian.co.uk" (http:/ / www.
guardian. co. uk/ football/ 2010/ dec/ 03/ world-cup-fifa-sepp-blatter). Guardian. . Retrieved 2010-12-22.
[17] "Fifa rules out video evidence" (http:/ / www. guardian. co. uk/ football/ 2005/ jan/ 05/ newsstory. sport8). The Guardian (London). 5
January 2005. . Retrieved 29 November 2009.
[18] IFAB (27 June 1970). "Minutes of the AGM" (http:/ / ssbra. org/ html/ laws/ IFABarc/ pdf/ 1970/ 1970min. pdf). Inverness: Soccer South
Bay Referee Association. p. §5(i). . Retrieved 29 November 2009.
[19] "FIFA halts instant replay experiment" (http:/ / www. cbc. ca/ sports/ soccer/ story/ 2008/ 03/ 08/ fifa-instant-replay. html). CBC News.
March 8, 2008. .
[20] Previous post Next post. "Soccer Resists Instant Replay Despite Criticism | Epicenter" (http:/ / www. wired. com/ epicenter/ 2009/ 11/
soccer-resists-the-instant-replay-despite-criticism/ ). Wired.com. . Retrieved 2010-12-22.
[21] "Instant replay may be a good idea, but it's a tricky one - Gabriele Marcotti - SI.com" (http:/ / sportsillustrated. cnn. com/ 2008/ writers/
gabriele_marcotti/ 09/ 25/ replay/ #ixzz0rLxI0iY7). CNN. 2008-09-25. .
[22] Laws of the game and rulings regarding the use of video replay in other sports:
• "6.A.7 Referee consulting with others" (http:/ / www. irb. com/ mm/ Document/ LawsRegs/ 0/
FULL070110LGLAWSOFTHEGAME2007red_569. pdf). IRB Laws of the Game. Dublin: International Rugby Board. 2007. p. 22.
ISBN 0-9552232-4-5. . Retrieved 29 November 2009.
• Trial Playing Condition - Review of Umpiring Decisions (http:/ / content-ind. cricinfo. com/ ci-icc/ content/ story/ 362178. html)
• NFL History by Decade (http:/ / www. nfl. com/ history/ chronology/ 1981-1990)
• CFL Board of Governors approves instant replay (http:/ / tsn. ca/ cfl/ news_story/ ?ID=168675& hubname=cfl)
• "Description of the NBA's new instant replay rules" (http:/ / www. nba. com/ 2008/ news/ 10/ 23/ 102108videoreplayrules/ index.
html?rss=true). NBA.com. 23 October 2008. . Retrieved 16 November 2008.
FIFA 7
• MLB to launch limited instant replay on Thursday, August 28 (http:/ / seattle. mariners. mlb. com/ news/ press_releases/ press_release.
jsp?ymd=20080826& content_id=3370520& vkey=pr_mlb& fext=. jsp& c_id=mlb)
• GMs vote 25-5 to use replay to aid home run decisions (http:/ / sports. espn. com/ mlb/ news/ story?id=3096923)
• "Hawk-Eye challenge rules unified" (http:/ / news. bbc. co. uk/ sport2/ hi/ tennis/ 7305404. stm). BBC. 19 March 2008. . Retrieved 29
November 2009.
• http:/ / www. nhl. com/ ice/ page. htm?id=26326
[23] (http:/ / news. yahoo. com/ s/ afp/ 20100628/ tc_afp/ fblwc2010refereestechnology_20100628161359)
[24] "The World Cup Needs Instant Replay Now" (http:/ / soccer. fanhouse. com/ 2010/ 06/ 27/ the-world-cup-needs-instant-replay-now/ ).
Soccer FanHouse. . Retrieved 2010-12-22.
[25] "Bleacher Report" (http:/ / bleacherreport. com/ articles/ 296307-video-technology-in-soccer-the-time-is-now). Bleacher Report. . Retrieved
2010-12-22.
[26] Robert Smith (June 28, 2010). "FIFA turns deaf ear to calls for replay" (http:/ / www. vancouversun. com/ FIFA+ turns+ deaf+ calls+
replay/ 3214719/ story. html). vancouversun.com. Agence France-Presse. . Retrieved June 24, 2010.
[27] Coomber, Michael (2010-06-29). "FIFA boss to consider video replay" (http:/ / www. cbc. ca/ sports/ soccer/ fifaworldcup/ news/ story/
2010/ 06/ 29/ sp-fifa-video. html). Cbc.ca. . Retrieved 2010-12-22.
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
External links
• FIFA Official web site (http://www.fifa.com)
• Document on alleged FIFA corruption (http://www.playthegame.org/Knowledge bank/Articles/
A_question_to_president_Blatter_about_bribes.aspx)
• FIFA Laws of the Game (http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/lawsofthegame.html)
Article Sources and Contributors 8
License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
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