NEWS

FIFA decided to indefinitely suspend all Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, from participation in all competitions run by the two football bodies

FÉDÉRATION INTERNATIONALE DE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION

• Highest global governing body of Football
• Also the international governing body for futsal (a kind of mini football played indoors on a hard court between two teams of five players each) and beach soccer (five-a-side, played on a beach)
• Membership now comprises 211 national football associations around the world
• Each of these national associations are members of one of the six confederations into which the footballing world is divided: Africa, Asia, Europe, North & Central America and the Caribbean, Oceania, and South America.
• Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, supports these national associations financially and logistically through various programmes
• FIFA Congress is the supreme legislative body of FIFA, in which each of the 211 members of the organisation has a vote(Meets annually)
• FIFA Council is the main decision making body of FIFA. The FIFA Council consists of 37 members, including the president, eight vice presidents, and 28 other members elected by the member associations. Each member is elected for a term of four years. Each confederation must elect at least one representative who is a woman.

Role of FIFA

• Responsible for organising and promoting football’s major international tournaments, most importantly the football World Cup, which began in 1930, and the Women’s World Cup which began in 1991.
• The men’s World Cup, held every four years, is FIFA’s marquee event. The next World Cup is scheduled to be held in Qatar in November-December this year. Brazil has won the World Cup competition the most number of times (5), followed by Italy and Germany (4 each), and Argentina, France, and Uruguay (2 each).
• FIFA is a member of the International Football Association Board, which sets the rules of football, and it applies and enforces those rules across all FIFA competitions
• All FIFA tournaments generate revenue from sponsorship