The world cup is the biggest soccer cup there is. Every four years millions of people enjoy watching their nation compete against others. Now, this huge event has to be organized and well – planned. This is one of the tasks of the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association). You have probably heard of it already. But do you know what exactly the FIFA is and what it does?
The FIFA is the international private body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It exists since 1904 and was originally created in order oversee international competitions among the European associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
FIFA’s birth was a result of the international games becoming more and more after the beginning of the 20th century. Leading Soccer figures felt they needed a govern body to regulate the uprising competitions. Robert Guerin, a French journalist, let a meeting in Paris with the seven founding nations and created the association. The journalist also became the first president over the organization from 1904 to 1906.
In London in 1908, the first-ever international tournament, the Olympic Football Tournament, was created. In 1928, the first FIFA World Cup took place in Urugay, which marked the first mile-stone in the beginning of the nowadays most important Soccer tournament.
The association expanded beyond Europe, when the nations of South Africa in 1909, Argentina in 1912, Canada and Chile in 1913, and the United States in 1914 became part of FIFA.
The FIFA World Cup has its own Trophy, known as the Jules Rimet Trophy, which is made of sterling silver and shows the Greek goddess of victory, Nike, who is holding a cup in her hands. Additionally, since 1954, there is an official World Cup mascot for each tournament, which presents the spirit of the event.
There is also an FIFA Women’s World Cup which was being held for the first time in 1991 in China.
Nowadays, the FIFA has its Headquarter in Zürich, Switzerland and its membership now includes 211 national associations and their associated men’s national teams as well as 129 women’s national teams. There are six confederations that are part of the FIFA and are responsible for each one region of the world. Those are the Asian Football Confederation, Confederation of African Football, Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol, Oceania Football Confederation and in Europe the most famous one, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).
Besides its success and important role for the soccer world, FIFA also has had a dark side in their history. In 2015, the biggest major scandal in the FIFA history, which led to the arrestment of several important officials of the association, appeared. More than two dozen FIFA officials were caught in a self-enrichment scheme that reached the highest levels of FIFA management and seemed to be going on for over 20 years. Because evidence was oftentimes destroyed by the accused officials, the whole truth did not come out. What can be said is, that high-ranked men of FIFA received money from countries that wanted to host as World Cup in their country, such as the World Cup in 2018 in Russia and in 2022 in Qatar. Additionally, they received money from brands and agencies, who wanted their slots on TV before a game would start and put the money in their own pockets
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/soccer-world-championship-world-cup-7597407/
Today, FIFA continues to play the most important role in promoting and organizing international football competitions. In the future, the organization hopes to expand the reach and popularity of soccer, while enhancing transparency in their decision-making and financial deals, in order to rebuild trust among fans and the whole soccer world.
Sources:
https://inside.fifa.com/about-fifa
https://historytimelines.co/timeline/fifa
https://www.britannica.com/sports/football-soccer
