Exactly 110yrs ago, The Federation of International Football Association, FIFA, was formed in France, on Saturday May 21, 1904. The body began from a humble beginning with only 7 members: France, Denmark, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and Holland, but today, FIFA now has 209 members (even bigger than the number of United Nations. Nigeria became the 88th member of FIFA on Feb 14, 1959. FIFA is made up of 6 Confederation, namely CAF (Africa), UEFA (Europe), AFC (Asia), CONMEBOL (South America), CONCACAF (North America aka Americas) and OFC (Oceania). Africa has the highest number of affiliates with 54 members. Since the formation of FIFA in 1904, only 8 Presidents have taken charge, with the incumbent being Joseph Sepp Blatter of Switzerland. Similarly, only 9 persons have emerged as General Secretaries, with the incumbent being Jerome Valcke. In addition to its supervisory role over world Soccer, FiFA organises 12 different competitions: FIFA World Cup (Men & Women), Olympic Football tournament, FIFA U-20 World Cup (Male & Female), FIFA U-17 World Cup (Male & Female), FIFA Confederation Cup, FIFA Futsal World Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup and Interactive World Cup. Apart from seeing to the modification of the above competitions, FIFA should be given credit for bringing innovations to football. Some of these changes include the modification of the back pass and offside rules, actual time of play in a match, use of electronic gadgets in timing matches as well as Goal line technology. FIFA has continued to preach the gospel of fair play and the spirit of sportsmanship among everyone that has something to do with football. The body has also continued to fight racism, child abuse, doping, corruption, match fixing, violence against women and insecurity at match venues. FiFA has turned the world into one big family through its various competitions. The football body has also emerged as one of the highest employers of labour in the world, as About 1.5billion people (about one-sixth of the worlds total population of 7billion, is engaged in the football industry. There are about 265million footballers in the world, representing about 4million teams, about 35million women play football all over the world, 80% of whom are youngsters and there are about 6million referees worldwide. FIFA also engage in charity and has formed the Save Our Soul children villages, using football as helping hand to fund over 700 villages in no fewer than 180 countries worldwide. Through its charity organisation, FIFA also donated to the families of members of the Zambian national team that died in an air crash in Gabon on November 1993, as well as Marc Vivian Foe, the Camerounian International, who died on the field of play at the FIFA Confederation Cup. In 110 years of existence, FIFA has shown great interest in the uplift of the world and has succeeded in changing the world through the beautiful game of football. Bravo FIFA!!!! Happy 110th Anniversary. Let the beautiful game continue to set the pace.
Posted on: Wed, 21 May 2014 09:14:51 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015