FIFA
The Fédération internationale de football association (French for 'International Association Football Federation';[3] abbreviated as FIFA and pronounced in English as /ˈfiːfə/ FEE-fə) is an international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded in 1904[4] to oversee international competition among the national associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain (represented by the Madrid Football Club), Sweden, and Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland, its membership now comprises 211 national associations. These national associations must also be members of one of the six regional confederations into which the world is divided: CAF (Africa), AFC (Asia and Australia), UEFA (Europe), CONCACAF (North & Central America and the Caribbean), OFC (Oceania), and CONMEBOL (South America).
This article is about the association football body. For the video game franchise, see FIFA (video game series). For other uses, see Fifa (disambiguation). For the international governing body that oversees basketball, see FIBA.Abbreviation
FIFA[1]
21 May 1904
Paris, France
Sport governance
Zürich, Switzerland
Worldwide
Mattias Grafstrom (Interim)
700+
FIFA outlines several objectives in its organizational statutes, including growing association football internationally, providing efforts to ensure it is accessible to everyone, and advocating for integrity and fair play.[5] It is responsible for the organization and promotion of association football's major international tournaments, notably the World Cup which commenced in 1930, and the Women's World Cup which began in 1991. Although FIFA does not solely set the laws of the game, that being the responsibility of the International Football Association Board of which FIFA is a member, it applies and enforces the rules across all FIFA competitions.[6] All FIFA tournaments generate revenue from sponsorships; in 2022, FIFA had revenues of over US $5.8 billion, ending the 2019–2022 cycle with a net positive of US$1.2 billion, and cash reserves of over US$3.9 billion.[7]
Reports by investigative journalists have linked FIFA leadership with corruption, bribery, and vote-rigging related to the election of FIFA president Sepp Blatter and the organization's decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively. These allegations led to the indictments of nine high-ranking FIFA officials and five corporate executives by the U.S. Department of Justice on charges including racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering. On 27 May 2015, several of these officials were arrested by Swiss authorities, who launched a simultaneous but separate criminal investigation into how the organization awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Those among these officials who were also indicted in the U.S. are expected to be extradited to face charges there as well.[8][9][10]
Many officials were suspended by FIFA's ethics committee including Sepp Blatter[11] and Michel Platini.[12] In early 2017, reports became public about FIFA president Gianni Infantino attempting to prevent the re-elections[13] of both chairmen of the ethics committee, Cornel Borbély and Hans-Joachim Eckert, during the FIFA congress in May 2017.[14][15] On 9 May 2017, following Infantino's proposal,[16] FIFA Council decided not to renew the mandates of Borbély and Eckert.[16] Together with the chairmen, 11 of 13 committee members were removed. FIFA has been suspected of corruption regarding the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.[17]
Use
Sport 
3:5
2018
Blue field with a FIFA logo
Recognition and awards[edit]
FIFA holds an annual awards ceremony, The Best FIFA Football Awards since 2016, which recognizes both individual and team achievements in international association football. Individually, the top men's player is awarded The Best FIFA Men's Player, and the top women's player is The Best FIFA Women's Player. Other prominent awards are The Best FIFA Football Coach and FIFA FIFPro World11.
In 2000, FIFA presented two awards, FIFA Club of the Century and FIFA Player of the Century, to decide the greatest football club and player of the 20th century. Real Madrid was the club winner, while Diego Maradona and Pelé were the joint player's winners.
FIFA+[edit]
In April 2022 FIFA launched FIFA+,[82] an OTT service providing up to 40,000 live matches per year, including 11,000 women's matches.[83] It was also confirmed that FIFA would make available archival content, including every FIFA World Cup and FIFA Women's World Cup match recorded on camera,[84] together with original documentary content.[85] Eleven Sports was later reported to be responsible for populating the FIFA+ platform with live matches.[86]
FIFA+ showed the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup live in selected regions such as Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, and Thailand.[87]
FIFA+ have the rights to competitions in Oceania including the OFC Champions League and the OFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament.[88][89][90] They also have rights to the New Zealand domestic competitions and national teams.[91][92]
2021-23 Members:
(in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Arabic, Indonesian, Japanese, and Korean)
