FIFA

The **International Federation of Association Football**  (**FIFA** ; French _Fédération Internationale de Football Association_) controls international football (also called soccer). The organization’s main  buildings are iĥn 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, 1904 in Paris and has 209 national associations as its members. The organization’s official languages are English, French, German and Spanish.

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 ( Confederation of African Football in Africa), CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football in North America and Central America), CONMEBOL (_Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol_ or the South American Football Confederation), OFC (Oceania Football Confederation in Oceania) and UEFA (Union of European Football Associations  in Europe).

## Related pages

- FIFA World Cup
- FIFA Women's World Cup
- FIFA Club World Cup
- Asian Football Confederation
- Confederation of African Football
- CONCACAF
- CONMEBOL
- Oceania Football Confederation
- UEFA

## Further reading

- Paul Darby, _Africa, Football and Fifa: Politics, Colonialism, and Resistance_ (Sport in the Global Society), Frank Cass Publishers 2002, .
- John Sugden, _FIFA and the Contest For World Football_, Polity Press 1998, .
- Jim Trecker, Charles Miers, J. Brett Whitesell, ed., _Women's Soccer: The Game and the Fifa World Cup_, Universe 2000, Revised Edition, .

## Other websites

- Official website
- FIFA Laws of the Game

## Infobox (organization)

- **image**: FIFA Logo (2010).svg
- **map**: World Map FIFA.svg
- **motto**: _For the Game. For the World._
- **type**: List of international sport federations, Federation of national associations
- **headquarters**: Zürich, Switzerland
- **leader title**: List of presidents of FIFA, President Supreme
- **leader name**: Gianni Infantino
- **leader title2**: President
- **leader name2**: David Chung (football executive), David Chung
- **leader name3**: Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa
 Aleksander Čeferin
 David Gill (executive), David Gill
Alejandro Dominguez (football executive), Alejandro Domínguez
 Ahmad Ahmad
 Victor Montagliani
- **leader title3**: Vice-Presidents
- **leader title4**: Secretary General
- **leader name4**: Mattias Grafström
- **affiliations**: International Olympic Committee
International Football Association Board
- **name**: **FIFA**
- **native name**: **Fédération Internationale de Football Association
- **native name lang**: **
- **msize**: 300px
- **mcaption**: Map of the members of FIFA according to their confederation
- **abbreviation**: FIFA
- **region served**: Worldwide
- **membership**: List of men's national association football teams, 211 national associations
- **languages**: English
French
German
Spanish
- **num staff**: 103