Football in some form can be traced back to Roman times and beyond. The game as we know it evolved from street brawls, which end in violence and near death for which there was no organized rules.

The first official international matches took place on the continent at the beginning of the century. The idea of founding an international federation began taking form. In general, one intended recognizing the leading role of the English who had already founded their football association in 1863.

Robert Guerin secretary of the football department of the union francaise des societies de sports athletiques and journalist with the “Matin” greeted the football associations on the continent in writing and asked to study the possibility of founding an umbrella organization. He was also the one who sent out invitations to the founding assembly. The services rendered by the founders were enormous.

The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was founded in the rare of the head quarters of the union Francaise de sports Athhletiques at the rue sent honore 229 in Paris 21 May 1904. The authorized representatives of the following associations signed the foundation act: France, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The first FIFA statutes were laid down and the following points were determined: – the reciprocal and exclusive recognition of the national associations represented and attending; clubs and players were forbidden to play simultaneously for different national associations, recognition by other associations of a player’s suspension announced by an association and the playing of matches according to the laws of the game of the football association, the annual contribution of each national association, and FIFA’s entitlement to take over the organization of an international competition. It was decided that this regulations would only come into force as of 1 September 1904. Moreover, the first statutes of FIFA were only of provisional nature, in order to simplify the acceptance of additional members.

The first FIFA congress held two days later on 23 May 1904 elected Robert Guerin as president, victor Eschneider (Switzerland) and Carl Anton Wilhelm, Hirschmann (Netherlands) were made Vice presidents.

The President holds the highest office with in FIFA. A presidential term has a duration of four years, and the President is elected by the associations represented at the congress and entitled to vote. A president is eligible for re-election; the FIFA statutes define the rights and duties of the president.

FIFA’s means and possibilities were restricted and as a private institution, it received neither governmental subsides nor funds from other sources. Funds strictly came from profits from the world cup.

FIFA with its 204 member associations and with over 250 million active players is one of the biggest and certainly the most popular sports federation in the world.

The services rendered by the pioneers were faced with an immense task because FIFA only existed on paper so to speak. One had given it shape, create associations as true national representations and get hold of new members.

The start of the first world war (1914) caused a major interruption that talked then about football and its mission unite nation and yet, all the international relations were not broken, even if they were not only maintained on a small scale.

The first world cup was opened at the centenary stadium in Montevideo, Uruguay on 18 July 1930. The world cup in Montevideo became a remarkable success, both in a sporting and a financial sense. Of course, the organizers were disappointed since only four national teams from Europe participated.

The Federation Internationale de Football Associations (FIFA) has commemorated its centennial this year with a variety of events and projects to pay tribute to the universality of football and honor people and places of historic importance to the “beautiful game”. FIFA has honored the extra ordinary contribution of the British associations to the modernization of the world most popular ball game.

Further more, the cultural, social, and educational aspects of football and the huge commitment of the world governing body have been acknowledged. FIFA has also given attention during its centennial celebrations to children’s rights &to those who are less fortunate in life.

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