International Soccer Organizations

Category: The Beautiful Game

Have you ever heard of FIFA? How about UEFA? Does CONCACAF ring a bell? There are quite a few acronyms in the soccer world. This article will hopefully shed some light as to what those acronyms stand for. The following article describes the various international soccer organizations.

FIFA
FIFA stands for Fédération Internationale de Football Association which is French for International Federation of Association Football. FIFA is the international governing body of both men’s and women’s soccer and it is responsible for the organization and governance of the major international soccer tournaments such as the World Cup.

Under FIFA, there are six continental confederations who oversee soccer for different regions of the world:

CONCACAF
CONCACAF is the Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean Association Football. Three South American countries are also members. They are Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.

CONMEBOL
CONMEBOL or CSF is the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol, or South American Football Confederation. It is the governing body of soccer in most of South America.

UEFA
UEFA corresponds to the Union of European Football Associations, which is the administrative and controlling body for European soccer. There are several countries which are geographically located in Asia but belong to UEFA rather than the AFC. The countries are Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Israel, Cyprus, Russia Azerbaijan, and Cyprus.

AFC
AFC stands for the Asian Football Confederation. It is the governing body of soccer in Asia and Australia.

OFC
OFC is the Oceania Football Confederation. It consists of Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, island nations such as Tonga, Fiji and other Pacific Island countries.

CAF
CAF is the Confédération Africaine de Football. It is French for African Football Confederation, which governs soccer in Africa.