FIFA

The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is the international governing body for football, futsal and beach football. Formed in 1904 to oversea international competitions, FIFA’s biggest achievement includes the organization of World Cup in 1930 and Women’s World Cup in 1991. Headquartered in Zurich, the association at its origin started with eight countries only but presently it has 211 national associations belonging to six regional confederations of the world. The association in 2013 has been able to generate revenues over 1.3 billion US dollars and generated a net profit of 72 million. However, the same organization also has been accused their leadership on the basis of corruption and bribery that led to the indictments of nine high-ranking FIFA officials along with five corporate executives.

Formed in 1904, FIFA was formed after the realization for a single body to govern and oversee association football in the early twentieth century. There were an increasing popularity and demand of international matches which led to the formation of FIFA. The Federation Internationale de Football Association was formed in Paris in 1904 and the French name and acronym are used everywhere. The main aim of the formation of the organization was to oversee international competition among the national associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. However, there has been an increase in the number of members and the organization currently, has 211 national associations. Robert Guerin became the first president of FIFA and he was replaced by Daniel Burley Woolfall in 1906. FIFA staged its first tournament in the 1908 London Olympics and in 1909, the FIFA membership expanded beyond Europe and made South Africa as its member in 1909, Argentina I 1912, Canada and Chile in 1913 and the United States in 1914. However, international football went on to decline during the World War One and after Woolfall’s death in 1918, it was considered that FIFA would collapse. However, Hirschmann in 1919 was solely responsible for keeping FIFA alive. In 1919 the British Association representing countries like England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales withdrew to protest the inclusion of the central power countries but they rejoined again in 192-. They again withdrew in 1928 and did not return until the end of World War II. FIFA was able to organize Olympic games and in the 1924 summer Olympics between Uruguay and Switzerland, there were 60,000 spectators watching the final. Later in 1928, FIFA considered staging their own world championship and later decided to held it in Uruguay as the country was celebrating its 100^th anniversary of independence. However, there was a huge economic crisis in Europe which led to several nations to pull out their participation. The first world cup began in Montevideo on 18^th July 1930 and the tournament had only four European countries participating in the tournament. in the 1934 World Cup hosted by Italy, the world cup final was the first match to be broadcasted live on radio and Italy won the world cup. As of 2016, there has been 20 football world cup’s organized and they have been won by eight different teams. The current FIFA champion is Germany after winning the 2014 world cup. Brazil has been the winner of world cup five times and is the only team to have played every tournament whereas Germany and Italy have been four-time winners of the world cup. Teams like Argentina and Uruguay has been the winner twice whereas England, France and Spain have been the winner of one title each.

FIFA has an executive Committee chaired by the President and the committee is composed of 24 people, the President, 8 Vice Presidents and 15 members. The executive committee is the main decision-making body of the organization and it decides which country will host the world cup. Glanni Infantino is the current and the 9^th President of FIFA to encourage the players and the teams. FIFA holds annual award ceremonies and it awards the FIFA Ballon d’OR to the top men’s player and FIFA World Player of the Year to the top women’s player. The other awards include FIFA Puskas Award, FIFA Pro Best XI, FIFA Fair Play Award and FIFA Presidential Award. FIFA has also been a part of many controversies and has been alleged for corruption. In May 2006, Andrew Jenning’s book “Foul! The Secret World of FIFA Bribes, Vote-Rigging, and Ticket Scandals” created controversies after it alleged international cash for contract scandals as well as vote rigging that occurred in the fight for Sepp Blatter’s continued control of FIFA. Journalists have also alleged FIFA for corruption, bribery and also raised questions on the organization’s decision in awarding the 2018 world cup to Russia and 2022 world cup to Qatar. These allegations lead to the indictments of nine high-ranking FIFA officials and five corporate executives by the IS Department of Justice on the charges of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering which led to the arrest of many officials by the Swiss authorities on 27^th May 2015.