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FIFA

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Sports

   FIFA (in full, Fédération Internationale de Football Association,
   French for International Federation of Association Football) is the
   international governing body of football (soccer). Its headquarters are
   in Zürich, Switzerland, and its current president is Sepp Blatter. FIFA
   is responsible for the organisation and governance of football's major
   international tournaments, most notably the FIFA World Cup, held since
   1930. FIFA is the largest sporting governing body and the second
   largest international organization in the world, after the United
   Nations, with over two hundred member associations split between six
   continental regions (see Structure below).

History

   The need for a single body to oversee the worldwide game became
   apparent at the beginning of the 20th century with the increasing
   popularity of international fixtures. The Football Association had
   chaired many discussions on setting up an international body, but was
   perceived as making no progress. It fell to seven other European
   countries to band together to form this association. FIFA was founded
   in Paris on May 21, 1904 — the French name and acronym persist to this
   day, even outside French-speaking countries. Its first president was
   Robert Guérin.

   FIFA presided over its first international competition in 1906, but
   this met with little approval or success. This, in combination with
   economic factors, led to the swift replacement of Guérin with Daniel
   Burley Woolfall from England, by now a member association. The next
   tournament staged, the football competition for the 1908 Olympics in
   London was more successful, despite the presence of professional
   footballers, contrary to the founding principles of FIFA.

   Membership of FIFA expanded beyond Europe with the application of South
   Africa in 1909, Argentina and Chile in 1912 and the United States in
   1913.

   FIFA however floundered during World War I with many players sent off
   to war and the possibility of travel for international fixtures
   severely limited. Post-war, following the death of Woolfall, the
   organisation fell into the hands of Dutchman Carl Hirschmann. It was
   saved from extinction, but at the cost of the withdrawal of the Home
   Nations, who cited an unwillingness to participate in international
   competitions with their recent World War enemies.

   The FIFA collection is held by the National Football Museum in England.

The World Cup

   Jules Rimet became the third President of FIFA in 1921. He presided
   over another two successful Olympic competitions despite the absence of
   England and Scotland, but the success of the competitions, combined
   with the rising profile of the game, allowed FIFA to seriously
   consider, for the first time, staging its own regular World
   Championship.

   Talks on the matter began in 1928, and the first World Cup took place
   in Uruguay in 1930 and was won by the home nation. Despite the
   reluctance of participation from European nations due to the travel
   time required and the ongoing economic depression, the tournament was
   considered a success and plans were laid for the next World Cup in
   1934, in Italy. Excluding a break for World War II, the World Cup has
   been held once every four years.

   The current World Cup champions are Italy, who won the most recent
   edition (the 2006 FIFA World Cup) defeating France in a penalty
   shootout. The next tournament will be held four years hence, as the
   2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Other tournaments

   Aside from the World Cup and Olympic competitions, FIFA organises World
   Championships for players at under-17 level and under-20 level. In
   addition to this, it has introduced the Confederations Cup, a
   competition for the champions from each confederation (plus the hosts
   and World Cup Winners), every four years. Originally organised by and
   held in Saudi Arabia every two years as the King Fahd Cup, it now
   serves as a prelude to the World Cup, with the World Cup host staging
   the tournament as a test of facilities. The current Confederations Cup
   champions are Brazil who defeated Argentina 4-1 in Germany.

   With the development of the women's game, FIFA introduced the Women's
   World Cup in 1991 and the Women's Under-20 World Championship in 2002
   (started as U-19, is now U-20 from 2006). An U-17 women's championship
   will start in 2008.

   FIFA's only major club competition is the FIFA Club World Cup. It was
   slated as the natural progression of the European/South American Cup
   (which itself ran under a variety of names) to include clubs from all
   confederations. The tournament was not warmly received on its debut in
   2000 and its 2002 edition was cancelled. Three years later, with a
   shorter revised format, the tournament returned for its 2005 edition in
   Japan.

   FIFA also presides over World Cups in modified forms of the game
   including beach football (the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup) and futsal
   (the FIFA Futsal World Championship).

Laws of the game

   The laws of football that govern the game are not solely the
   responsibility of FIFA; they are maintained by a body called the
   International Football Association Board (IFAB). FIFA has a 50%
   representation on its board (four representatives); the other four are
   provided by the football associations of England, Scotland, Wales, and
   Northern Ireland, in recognition of the unique contribution to the
   creation and history of the game of the nations now comprising the
   United Kingdom.

Structure

   Map of the World with the six confederations.
   Enlarge
   Map of the World with the six confederations.

   FIFA is an association established under the Laws of Switzerland. Its
   headquarters are in Zurirch.

   FIFA´s supreme body is the FIFA Congress, an assembly made up of a
   representative from each filiated national federation. The Congress
   assembles in ordinary session once every fourth year, and extraordinary
   sessions have been held once a year since 1998. Only the Congress can
   pass changes to FIFA´s by-laws.

   Congress elects the President of FIFA, its secretary-general and the
   other members of FIFA´s Executive Comittee. The President and
   secretary-general are the main officeholders of FIFA, and are in charge
   of its daily administration, carried out by the General Secretariat,
   with its staff of 208 members.

   FIFA´s Executive Comittee, chaired by the President, is the main
   decisionmaking body of the organization in the intervals of Congress.
   FIFA´s worldwide organizational structure also consists of several
   other bodies, under authority of the Executive Committee or created by
   Congress as Standing Comittees. Among those bodies are the Finance
   Committee, the Disciplinary Committee, the Referee´s Committee, etc.

   Aside from its worldwide institutions (presidency, Executive Board,
   Congress, etc.) FIFA has created confederations which oversee the game
   in the different continents and regions of the world. National
   federations, and not the continental Confederations, are members of
   FIFA. The continental Confederations are provided for in FIFA´s
   by-laws. National federations must claim membership to both FIFA and
   the confederation in which their nation is geographically resident for
   their teams to qualify for entry to FIFA's competitions (with a few
   geographic exceptions listed below):

               AFC - Asian Football Confederation in Asia and Australia
               CAF - Confédération Africaine de Football in Africa
               CONCACAF - Confederation of North, Central American and
          Caribbean Association Football in North America and Central
          America
               CONMEBOL - Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol in South
          America
               OFC - Oceania Football Confederation in Oceania
               UEFA - Union of European Football Associations in Europe.

   Nations straddling the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia
   have generally had their choice of confederation. As a result, a number
   of transcontinental nations including Russia, Turkey, Armenia and
   Azerbaijan have chosen to become part of UEFA despite the bulk of their
   land area being in Asia. Israel, although lying entirely within Asia,
   joined UEFA in 1994, after decades of isolation by many of its Middle
   Eastern neighbours. Kazakhstan was the latest nation to make the move
   from AFC to UEFA, in 2002.

   Guyana and Suriname have always been CONCACAF members despite being
   South American countries.

   Australia have been given permission to join the AFC instead of the OFC
   from 2006 onwards. Australia have long lobbied for a change, because
   their national team is very much stronger than the other Oceania teams.
   No team from the OFC is offered automatic qualification to the World
   Cup; instead the winner of their section must play a play-off against a
   CONMEBOL side, a hurdle at which Australia have traditionally fallen.
   Perhaps ironically, Australia successfully qualified for the 2006 FIFA
   World Cup by winning just such a playoff in a penalty shootout against
   Uruguay, just a few months after the clearance to move was granted.

   In total, FIFA recognises 207 national federations and their associated
   men's national teams as well as 129 women's nationals teams; see the
   list of national football teams and their respective country codes. The
   FIFA World Rankings are updated monthly and rank each team based on
   their performance in international competitions, qualifiers, and
   friendly matches. There is also a world ranking for women's football,
   updated four times a year.

Recognitions and awards

   FIFA awards, each year, the title of FIFA World Player of the Year to
   the most prestigious player of the year, as part of its annual awards
   ceremony which also recognises team and international football
   achievements.

   As part of its centennial celebrations in 2004, FIFA organised a "Match
   of the Century" between France and Brazil, the most successful national
   teams of the last decade. In addition, it commissioned arguably the
   most famous player ever, Pelé, to produce a list of the greatest
   players of all time. This list, the FIFA 100, included 50 players who
   were still actively playing at the time of publication ( one of whom
   was female), and 75 retired players (including himself and one woman,
   but not including deceased players). The list was originally planned to
   be just 100 players long but Pelé is understood to have found it too
   hard to choose just 100 and so the list actually names 125 players.

Commercial activities

   FIFA announced in April 2004 that it is expecting to earn $144 million
   profit on $1.64 billion in revenue between 2003 and 2006 (the 4 year
   cycle including the 2006 World Cup).

   FIFA has licensed its name and copyrighted content to computer game
   designer EA Sports to provide a number of football simulation games for
   the PC and various game consoles. A new installment in this FIFA series
   of games is introduced each year, and additional versions are released
   with World Cup branding to coincide with these tournaments. 2005 saw an
   additional "urban football" video game franchise, FIFA Street and its
   sequel FIFA Street 2. In August 2006 EA & FIFA announced that they
   would be extending their exclusive deal for another four years,
   covering the 2010/11 season .

Allegations of financial irregularities

   In May 2006 British investigative reporter Andrew Jennings' book Foul (
   Harper Collins) caused controversy within the football world by
   detailing an alleged international cash-for-contracts scandal following
   the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner ISL, and revealed how some
   football officials have been urged to secretly repay the sweeteners
   they received. The book also exposed the vote-rigging that went on
   behind closed doors in the fight for Sepp Blatter's continued control
   of FIFA.

   Nearly simultaneous with the release of Foul was a BBC television
   expose by Jennings and BBC producer Roger Corke for the BBC news
   programme Panorama. In this hour-long programme screened on June 11,
   2006, Jennings and the Panorama team submit that Sepp Blatter is being
   investigated by Swiss police over his role in a secret deal to repay
   more than £1m worth of bribes pocketed by football officials.

   All testimonies offered in the Panorama expose were done via disguise
   of voice, person, or both, save one; Mel Brennan, a university
   professor in the United States, former Head of Special Projects for
   CONCACAF and a FIFA delegate, became the first high-level football
   insider to go public with substantial allegations of financial
   malfeasance by CONCACAF and by FIFA. His book, The Apprentice:
   Tragicomic Times Among the Men Running - and Ruining - World Football
   is due out in late 2006 or early 2007.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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