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, .

References

 Other websites 

 Official website 
 FIFA Laws of the Game 


Category:1904 establishments in Europe
Category:1900s establishments in Switzerland