Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)

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About the FIFA-

• FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Football Association in French, is the highest global governing body of football (also known as soccer to distinguish it from American football), the world’s most popular game. 
• It is also the international governing body for futsal (a kind of mini football played indoors on a hard court between two teams of five players each) and beach soccer (five-a-side, played on a beach).
• Founded  in 1904 in Paris, France to oversee international competitions among the national football associations of a handful of West European countries, the membership of FIFA now comprises 211 national football associations around the world.
• Each of these national associations are members of one of the six confederations into which the footballing world is divided: Africa, Asia, Europe, North & Central America and the Caribbean, Oceania, and South America.
• The founding president of FIFA was the Frenchman Robert Guerin, who served from 1904-06.
• The longest serving president of FIFA was Jules Rimet (1921-54), after whom the FIFA World Cup was originally named.
• FIFA, which is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, supports these national associations financially and logistically through various programmes. 
• According to FIFA, these associations, as its representatives, “have obligations to respect the statutes, aims and ideals of football’s governing body and promote and manage our sport accordingly”.
• The FIFA Congress is the supreme legislative body of FIFA, in which each of the 211 members of the organisation has a vote. 
• The Congress ordinarily meets annually, and members of the Congress propose candidates for the host of the FIFA World Cup and presidency of FIFA.

• In the intervals when the FIFA Congress is not meeting, the FIFA Council is the main decision making body of FIFA. 

• The FIFA Council consists of 37 members, including the president, eight vice presidents, and 28 other members elected by the member associations. 
• Each member is elected for a term of four years. Each confederation must elect at least one representative who is a woman.
• FIFA is responsible for organising and promoting football’s major international tournaments, most importantly the football World Cup, which began in 1930, and the Women’s World Cup which began in 1991.
• The men’s World Cup, held every four years, is FIFA’s marquee event. 
• The next World Cup is scheduled to be held in Qatar in November-December this year. 
• Brazil has won the World Cup competition the most number of times (5), followed by Italy and Germany (4 each), and Argentina, France, and Uruguay (2 each).
• FIFA is a member of the International Football Association Board, which sets the rules of football, and it applies and enforces those rules across all FIFA competitions. All FIFA tournaments generate revenue from sponsorship.

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