50 Fun Facts About FIFA

What share of the Home of FIFA, the Zurich headquarters inaugurated in 2007, lies underground?

Two thirds of the Home of FIFA sits below ground, with five buried levels against just two above it. A German broadcaster called it an underground skyscraper.

Which country joined FIFA by telegram on founding day in 1904 but is not counted as a founder?

Germany wired its intention to join on 21 May 1904, the day seven founders met in Paris, but a telegram did not earn founder status. Its delegates did help decide the first statutes.

Pelé's 2004 FIFA 100 list of the greatest living footballers actually named how many players?

125 footballers appear on the FIFA 100, so the title refers to FIFA's hundredth birthday rather than the length of Pelé's list.

Besides goals, penalties and straight red cards, what fourth type of decision can a VAR review?

Mistaken identity in awarding a red or yellow card is the fourth reviewable category. VAR was only written into the Laws of the Game in March 2018.

For how many years was Jules Rimet FIFA president, longer than anyone before or since?

33 years in office, from 1921 to 1954, make Jules Rimet the longest-serving FIFA president. He also created the World Cup, which was renamed in his honour.

Every FIFA member association must also belong to one of how many continental confederations?

Six confederations divide the globe, and FIFA requires every national association to sit inside one of them. The youngest, covering the Pacific, dates only from 1966.

FIFA International Soccer debuted in December 1993 on which console, with ports to other systems following in 1994?

Sega Mega Drive owners got FIFA International Soccer first, and that version became the UK's best-selling home video game of 1993. Ports to other systems followed in 1994.

Which nation has spent the longest at No. 1 in FIFA's men's ranking, one of only a handful ever to top it?

Brazil has led the FIFA ranking for longer than anyone, though eight nations have held top spot since the list began in the early 1990s.

How long a ban did FIFA's ethics committee hand Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini on 21 December 2015?

Eight years was the ban for both men, and the ruling ejected Blatter from an office he had held since 1998. He was 79 at the time.

Which player fronted the standard cover of EA Sports FC 24, the first post-FIFA game?

Erling Haaland fronted EA Sports FC 24's standard edition, the first release after EA and FIFA ended their licensing agreement. Women's players joined Ultimate Team for the first time in that game.

Which FIFA founder nation of 1904 was represented by a lone club because it had no national federation?

Spain was represented by the club now known as Real Madrid; the Royal Spanish Football Federation did not exist until nine years later.

Which Brazilian, an Olympic swimmer in 1936 and water polo player in 1952, ran FIFA from 1974 to 1998?

João Havelange swam the 400m and 1500m freestyle in Berlin without getting past the heats, then spent 24 years as FIFA president. He also led his country's delegation at the 1956 Games.

Which referee of the 1934 FA Cup final rewrote the Laws of the Game in 1938, then led FIFA from 1961?

Stanley Rous retired from refereeing the day after that Wembley final, and his 1938 rewrite made the Laws simpler and easier to understand. He ran FIFA until 1974.

Before his 1998 election as president, Sepp Blatter spent the years from 1981 in which FIFA post?

General secretary from 1981 to 1998 was Blatter's route to the top, after six years as technical director. He also married the daughter of the man he replaced in the job.

Which football bodies quit FIFA over the Central Powers, then again in 1928 over payments to amateurs?

The four British associations of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland walked out twice and did not return until after the Second World War.

Which confederation, founded in 1916, is FIFA's oldest and, with ten members, also its smallest?

South America's CONMEBOL is the only fully continental, land-based confederation, with no island members, and its headquarters sit in Luque, Paraguay.

Which 55-member confederation moved its base from Paris to Bern in 1960 and on to Nyon in 1995?

UEFA was founded in Basel in 1954 and opened its current Nyon headquarters in 1999; 48 of its 55 members are sovereign UN states.

CAF, Africa's confederation, left Khartoum after a fire for a headquarters near which city?

Cairo's satellite 6th of October City now hosts CAF, which began inside the Sudanese FA's offices in 1957 and has 54 members.

Which nation left the Pacific's confederation for Asia's in 2006, leaving New Zealand its biggest member?

Australia had already left once before; the Asian deal was struck in June 2005, so the Socceroos played the 2006 World Cup still officially representing their old confederation.

Which confederation had no guaranteed World Cup place until the 2026 tournament?

Oceania's OFC now sends its best team straight to the finals, and New Zealand took the first automatic berth in March 2025 by beating New Caledonia 3–0.

Which Brazilian club won the first Club World Championship in 2000 on penalties after a goalless final?

Corinthians beat Vasco da Gama 4–3 in the shoot-out in front of 73,000 after a 0–0 draw that had run through extra time.

Which team won the first U-20 World Cup, held in Tunisia in 1977, beating Mexico on penalties in the final?

The Soviet Union lifted the first title at Tunis's Stade El Menzah; the event was called the World Youth Championship until 2005.

Which nation has won the U-20 World Cup more often than any other, one more time than its neighbouring rival?

Argentina's six titles top the list, one ahead of its neighbour; the event has been played every two years since 1977.

Which African nation is the most successful in U-17 World Cup history, having also lost three finals?

Nigeria's haul of titles is the biggest in the tournament, and Africa has won seven U-17 crowns in all, with Ghana taking the other two.

The Confederations Cup began in 1992 as the King Fahd Cup, organised and hosted by which country?

Saudi Arabia staged the 1992 and 1995 editions, named for its king, with the Saudi national side taking on a handful of continental champions.

Who lost the last Confederations Cup final 1–0 in 2017, two years before FIFA scrapped the tournament?

Chile lost to the reigning world champions, who claimed their first Confederations Cup; FIFA then handed its slot to an expanded Club World Cup.

Which nation beat Tunisia after extra time to win the first FIFA-run Arab Cup in Qatar in 2021?

Algeria's first Arab Cup came with a 2–0 win at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, in venues that were warming up for the 2022 World Cup.

What does Europe's club champion receive in FIFA's Intercontinental Cup, a knockout launched in 2024?

A bye to the final is the European champion's privilege, while the other confederations' champions play off for the right to face them.

Since 1992 men's Olympic footballers must be under what age, with three overage exceptions from 1996?

23 is the cap, imposed so the Olympics would not rival the World Cup; the limit was raised by a year for the postponed Tokyo Games.

In which year did FIFA join the law-making board IFAB as its fifth member, at a meeting in Wrexham?

1913 brought FIFA two seats on a board the home nations had run alone since 1886, and it was the FA itself that proposed the change.

Which camera network, tried at the 2013 Confederations Cup, gave the 2014 World Cup its goal-line technology?

GoalControl trained more than a dozen high-speed cameras on the two goals; today almost every licensed installation in the world is Hawk-Eye instead.

How many substitutions, taken in at most three windows, became permanent in 2022 after a pandemic trial?

Five substitutions, up from three, were introduced in 2020 on FIFA's proposal and made permanent in 2022, with the windows designed to curb time-wasting.

Which nation first reached No. 1 in FIFA's ranking in November 2015 and finished third at the 2018 World Cup?

Belgium took top spot under Marc Wilmots after sealing Euro qualification with a match to spare, and held it for nearly half a year that first time.

FIFA rebuilt its men's ranking in 2018, after years of criticism, on which method borrowed from chess?

The Elo rating system, long used for FIFA's women's ranking, replaced a formula that had left the reigning champions top even after a first-round World Cup exit.

Which country hosted the first FIFA Futsal World Cup in 1989, before the event settled into a four-year cycle?

The Netherlands staged the inaugural tournament; since 1992 it has run every four years, slotted in just after the Olympics and Paralympics.

In which year did the FIFA Museum open in Zurich, a project that polarised opinion in the city?

2016 saw the museum open on 28 February, two days after Gianni Infantino's election, and the project polarised opinion in the city.

Who composed the instrumental FIFA Anthem, first played before matches at the 1994 World Cup?

Franz Lambert's wordless anthem, arranged by Rob May and Simon Hill, was reworked by Gota Yashiki in 2004, and the original served until 2018.

What is FIFA's main strategic body, the former Executive Committee, which decides matters between congresses?

The Council took over from the Executive Committee, and the Congress elects the president and the Council's members in the year after each World Cup.

Which royal did Sepp Blatter beat for the FIFA presidency two days after the May 2015 Zurich arrests?

Prince Ali bin Hussein lost comfortably on 29 May 2015, yet within days Blatter announced he would not serve the term he had just won.

How many officials did US prosecutors charge on 27 May 2015, the morning seven were arrested at a Zurich hotel?

14 officials were charged, nine of them current or former FIFA executives including vice-president Jeffrey Webb; 18 people and two firms were indicted in all.

Swiss prosecutors accused Sepp Blatter of making a 'disloyal payment' to Michel Platini of roughly how much?

$2 million was the sum, and it brought both men bans from FIFA, yet a Swiss court cleared them of fraud when the case finally reached trial.

Which American FIFA executive, caught over a decade of unpaid taxes, secretly taped colleagues for the FBI?

Chuck Blazer recorded key meetings for the FBI and IRS after they found more than a decade of unpaid taxes on hidden multimillion-dollar incomes.

FIFA created 'The Best' award after ending a merger of its World Player prize with whose Ballon d'Or?

France Football and FIFA jointly awarded the FIFA Ballon d'Or from 2010 to 2015; when the partnership ended, each body went back to its own prize.

Which forward won the first FIFA Puskás Award for the year's best goal, in December 2009?

Cristiano Ronaldo collected the prize at the World Player gala in Switzerland; the award was created at Sepp Blatter's behest and named for Ferenc Puskás.

Ultimate Team, the card-collecting mode driving EA's football games, arrived as a March 2009 update to which game?

FIFA 09 gained Ultimate Team on 19 March 2009 in a version 13.02 patch that also added PlayStation 3 trophies.

Which entry, announced in May 2015, was the first in EA's football series to include women's national teams?

FIFA 16 added women's national teams and let fans vote a player onto regional covers beside Lionel Messi, the first time a cover was chosen by popular vote.

Which player shared the Ultimate Edition cover with Kylian Mbappé on the final game under the FIFA name?

Sam Kerr's cover closed a 29-year partnership: that game was the 30th and last instalment before EA dropped the FIFA name.

Which band's 'Song 2' served as the theme music for FIFA: Road to World Cup 98?

Blur's 'Song 2' fronted a game whose licensed soundtrack was hailed as groundbreaking, and which packed in all 172 FIFA-registered national teams.

EA announced in May 2022 that its FIFA licence would end; the renamed EA Sports FC 24 launched in which year?

2023 saw EA Sports FC 24 launch on 29 September, the licence having expired on 31 December 2022 after a one-year extension for one last FIFA-branded game.

Sepp Blatter, born in Visp, and Gianni Infantino, born in Brig, both come from which Swiss canton?

Valais has produced both Sepp Blatter and Gianni Infantino; Infantino rose through the legal department of Europe's confederation before succeeding Blatter in 2016.