FIFA

This article is about the association football body. For the video game franchise, see FIFA (video game series). For other uses, see Fifa (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with FIBA.

FIFA
Fédération Internationale de Football Association
Founded21 May 1904; 120 years ago (1904-05-21)
FounderRobert Guérin
Founded atParis, France
TypeInternational sports federation
HeadquartersZürich, Switzerland
Jakarta, Indonesia (AFC)[1]
Membership
211 national associations
Gianni Infantino
Senior vice-president
Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa (AFC)
Vice-presidents
Secretary general
Mattias Grafström
Main organ
FIFA Congress
Subsidiaries
AffiliationsInternational Olympic Committee
International Football Association Board
Staff
700+
WebsiteFIFA.com

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (lit. 'International Federation of Association Football'), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA (/ˈfiːfə/ FEE-fə), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded in 1904 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: CAF (Africa), AFC (Asia and Australia), UEFA (Europe), CONCACAF (North & Central America and the Caribbean), OFC (Oceania), and CONMEBOL (South America).

FIFA outlines several objectives in its organizational statutes, including growing football internationally, ensuring it is accessible to everyone, and advocating for integrity and fair play.[3] It is responsible for organizing and promoting football's major international tournaments, notably the World Cup which began in 1930, and the Women's World Cup which commenced 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.[4] 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 $1.2 billion, and cash reserves of over $3.9 billion.[5]

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 US 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 US are expected to be extradited to face charges there as well.[6][7][8]

Many officials were suspended by FIFA's ethics committee including Sepp Blatter[9] and Michel Platini.[10] In early 2017, reports became public about FIFA president Gianni Infantino attempting to prevent the re-elections[11] of both chairmen of the ethics committee, Cornel Borbély and Hans-Joachim Eckert, during the FIFA congress in May 2017.[12][13] On 9 May 2017, following Infantino's proposal,[14] FIFA Council decided not to renew the mandates of Borbély and Eckert.[14] Together with the chairmen, 11 of 13 committee members were removed. FIFA has been suspected of corruption regarding the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.[15]

  1. ^ "FIFA President opens FIFA Jakarta Office in Indonesia". FIFA. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  2. ^ "FIFA Committees – FIFA Council". FIFA. Archived from the original on 28 April 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  3. ^ "FIFA Statutes". FIFA. Archived from the original on 23 April 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
  4. ^ "About FIFA: Organisation". FIFA. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
  5. ^ "2022 Financial Highlights". FIFA. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  6. ^ Clifford, Stephanie; Apuzzo, Matt (27 May 2015). "FIFA officials arrested on corruption charges; Sepp Blatter isn't among them". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 May 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
  7. ^ "Nine FIFA Officials and Five Corporate Executives Indicted for Racketeering Conspiracy and Corruption". US DOJ Office of Public Affairs. 27 May 2015. Archived from the original on 27 May 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  8. ^ Collett, Mike; Homewood, Brian (27 May 2015). "World soccer rocked as top officials held in U.S., Swiss graft cases". Reuters. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  9. ^ "Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini banned for eight years by Fifa". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 10 January 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  10. ^ "Rise and fall of Michel Platini – the self-proclaimed 'football man' who forgot the meaning of integrity". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 10 January 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  11. ^ Conn, David (2 March 2017). "Trust in Fifa has improved only slightly under Gianni Infantino, survey finds". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 24 March 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  12. ^ "FIFA Ethics Chiefs Facing Uncertain Future". The New York Times. Reuters. 15 March 2017. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  13. ^ "Infantino at 1. Are the Ethics bigwigs the next stop on his personal 'reform' agenda?". Inside World Football. 27 February 2017. Archived from the original on 25 March 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  14. ^ a b "FIFA Ethics Committee still investigating 'hundreds' of cases: Borbely". Reuters. 10 May 2017. Archived from the original on 10 May 2017. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
  15. ^ Ellis, Sam (9 December 2022). "How FIFA corrupted the World Cup". Vox. Retrieved 10 January 2023.