ABSTRACT
The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was founded in Paris in May 1904. A growth in the appeal of international xtures played between teams representing nations was a key reason behind the establishment of a governing international body for football being regarded as relevant in the early years of the twentieth century. FIFA commenced as a European a air with the national associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland as founding members. Additionally, there was Spanish involvement at the inaugural moment via the Madrid Football Club. This converted to representation by the Royal Spanish Football Federation in 1914, following the establishment of that organisation in 1913 (Lanfranchi et al., 2004: 56-63). The expansion of FIFA beyond Europe commenced with membership applications coming from South Africa in 1908, Argentina and Chile in 1912 and the United States of America in 1913 (Lanfranchi et al., 2004: 64-5). Immense controversy notwithstanding, the ambition to become a global organisation has been largely ful lled. FIFA now provides organisational coverage around the world via six confederations, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL), the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) (Tomlinson, 2014: 29). At the time of writing, these confederations consist, respectively, of 46, 54, 41, 10, 11 and 53 national member organisations. By including non-sovereign entities, such as Scotland and the other UK ‘Home Nations’, as well as disputed territories, FIFA can claim a larger membership of ‘national states’ than the United Nations. Some fudging of the location of teams within confederations has occurred because of both diplomatic and football-related reasons. For example, Israel is a member of UEFA, whereas its northern and eastern neighbours, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria are members of the West Asia Football Federation within the AFC, and Egypt is a member of the Union of North African Football Federations within the CAF. In 2006 Australia was relocated from the OFC (where it was justi ably located in geographical terms) to the ASEAN Football Federation within the AFC. The move was done on the grounds that Australia had become too dominant as a competing nation with the OFC, but also, that this
dominance came to disadvantage Australia in the nal play-o stage towards quali cation for the World Cup (Hughson, 2006).
