FIFA - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (February 2016)

FIFA

Fédération Internationale de Football Association
Map of the members of FIFA according to their confederation
Abbreviation	FIFA[1]
Motto	For the Game. For the World.
Founded	21 May 1904; 120 years ago (1904-05-21)
Type	Federation of national associations
Headquarters	Zürich, Switzerland
Coordinates	47°22′53″N 8°34′28″E / 47.38139°N 8.57444°E / 47.38139; 8.57444
Region served	Worldwide
Membership	211 national associations
Official languages	English French German Spanish
President	Gianni Infantino
Senior Vice-President	David Chung
Vice-Presidents	Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa Aleksander Čeferin David Gill Alejandro Domínguez Ahmad Ahmad Victor Montagliani [2]
Secretary General	Fatma Samoura
Affiliations	International Olympic Committee International Football Association Board
Staff	103
Website	www.fifa.com

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA /ˈfiːfə/; 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, 1905 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).

• 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

• 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.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to FIFA.

• Official website (in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, and Japanese)
• FIFA Laws of the Game Archived 2007-09-01 at the Wayback Machine