FIFA Trivia
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100 free FIFA trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
FIFA is more than the World Cup. It is a 120-year-old federation founded in a Paris back room, run from a largely underground headquarters in Zurich, and answerable to more member bodies than the United Nations has states. Its presidents have included a former Olympic swimmer and a Wembley referee, and its modern history includes a dawn hotel raid that reshaped world sport. This quiz covers the organisation and its world: how it was founded and who joined, the confederations beneath it, the youth, club and regional tournaments it runs beyond the World Cup, the awards it hands out, how its world ranking works, who writes the Laws of the Game, the 2015 corruption case and its fallout, and the video game series that carried the FIFA name for three decades before it was dropped. It suits pub quiz setters, football fans who want something beyond results and scorers, and anyone curious how the game is actually governed. Every answer comes with a short explanation and a source.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which European capital was FIFA founded on 21 May 1904?
Paris
Paris hosted the founding after England's Football Association refused to lead a world body, so seven continental nations went ahead alone and gave FIFA the French name it still carries.
Q 02Which country joined FIFA by telegram on founding day in 1904 but is not counted as a founder?
Germany
Germany wired its intention to join on 21 May 1904, the day the seven founders signed up, but a telegram did not earn founder status. Germany still helped the founders decide the first statutes.
Q 03Which football great chose the FIFA 100, a 2004 list of living players that actually ran to 125 names?
Pelé
Pelé was asked for 50 active and 50 retired players but could not cut the veterans down, so he named 75 of them; the 100 in the title marks FIFA's centenary.
Q 04Since VAR entered the Laws in 2018, which decision has been reviewable alongside goals, penalties and straight red cards?
Mistaken identity
Mistaken identity, when a referee books or sends off the wrong player, was the fourth original category. Clearly wrong second yellow cards and corner kicks have since been added to the protocol.
Q 05Which Frenchman led FIFA for 33 years, longer than anyone, and gave his name to the first World Cup trophy?
Jules Rimet
Jules Rimet was president from 1921 to 1954 and pushed through the vote that created the World Cup; the trophy, first called Victory, was renamed for him in 1946.
Q 06FIFA's 211 member associations are 18 more than the member states of which global body?
The United Nations
The United Nations has 193 member states; FIFA reaches 211 because places such as England, Scotland, Hong Kong and Gibraltar field their own teams without being sovereign states.
Q 07FIFA International Soccer debuted in December 1993 on which console, with ports to other systems following in 1994?
Sega Mega Drive
Sega Mega Drive owners got FIFA International Soccer first, and despite launching only in December 1993 it sold more than half a million copies to become Europe's best-selling game of the year.
Q 08Which nation has spent the longest at No. 1 in FIFA's men's ranking, one of only a handful ever to top it?
Brazil
Brazil had led the ranking for longer than any other nation as of 2026. Germany topped the first list, then Brazil took over on the way to winning the 1994 World Cup.
Q 09Which Lausanne-based court rejected Sepp Blatter's appeal against his football ban in December 2016?
Court of Arbitration for Sport
The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a six-year ban; FIFA's ethics judges had first set it at eight years in December 2015, before an appeal committee trimmed it two months later.
Q 10Which player fronted the standard cover of EA Sports FC 24, the first post-FIFA game?
Erling Haaland
Erling Haaland got the cover months after his 36 goals for Manchester City broke the Premier League's single-season record, as EA relaunched its series without the FIFA name.
Q 11Which club represented Spain at FIFA's founding in 1904 because the country had no national federation yet?
Real Madrid
Real Madrid, then two years old and known as Madrid Football Club, signed for Spain; the club only became 'Real' when King Alfonso XIII granted it the royal title in 1920.
Q 12Which Brazilian, an Olympic swimmer in 1936 and water polo player in 1952, ran FIFA from 1974 to 1998?
João Havelange
João Havelange swam at the 1936 Berlin Olympics without getting past the heats. As FIFA president he doubled the World Cup from 16 teams to 32.
Q 13Which referee of the 1934 FA Cup final rewrote the Laws of the Game in 1938, then led FIFA from 1961?
Stanley Rous
Q 21Which Brazilian club won the first Club World Championship in 2000 on penalties after a goalless final?
Corinthians
Corinthians beat Vasco da Gama 4–3 on penalties after a 0–0 draw at the Maracanã, an all-Brazilian final that neither European entrant reached; Mexico's Necaxa even beat the Spanish entrant to third place.
Q 22Which team won the first U-20 World Cup, held in Tunisia in 1977, beating Mexico on penalties in the final?
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union drew 2–2 with Mexico in Tunis, Vladimir Bessonov scoring both goals, then won the shoot-out 9–8; Bessonov was named the tournament's best player.
Q 23Which nation has won the U-20 World Cup more often than any other, one more time than its neighbouring rival?
Argentina
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.
Q 14Before his 1998 election as president, Sepp Blatter spent the years from 1981 in which FIFA post?
General secretary
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.
Q 15Which football bodies quit FIFA over the Central Powers, then again in 1928 over payments to amateurs?
The four British associations
The four British associations, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, walked out twice and stayed away until 1946, so none of them played in the first three World Cups.
Q 16Which confederation, founded in 1916, is FIFA's oldest and, with ten members, also its smallest?
South America's CONMEBOL
South America's CONMEBOL was founded in Buenos Aires during the 1916 tournament that marked a century of Argentine independence, the event now known as the Copa América.
Q 17Which confederation has the most FIFA member associations, 55 to its nearest rival's 54?
UEFA
UEFA had 55 members to Africa's 54 as of 2025, helped by teams that do not represent sovereign states: England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Gibraltar and the Faroe Islands.
Q 18CAF, Africa's confederation, left Khartoum after a fire for a headquarters near which city?
Cairo
Cairo's satellite 6th of October City now hosts CAF, founded in Khartoum in 1957. South Africa was barred from its first Cup of Nations that year for refusing to send a multiracial team.
Q 19Which nation left the Pacific's confederation for Asia's in 2006?
Australia
Australia qualified through Asia for the next five World Cups, 2010 to 2026, having reached only two before, and won the Asian Cup as hosts in 2015.
Q 20Which confederation had no guaranteed World Cup place until the 2026 tournament?
Oceania's OFC
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.
Argentina's six titles, as of 2025, put it one ahead of Brazil. Five of them came between 1995 and 2007, and Lionel Messi was top scorer and best player of the 2005 win.
Q 24Which African nation is the most successful in U-17 World Cup history, having also lost three finals?
Nigeria
Nigeria has won five U-17 titles, as of 2025, and Africa seven in all, with Ghana taking the other two. Victor Osimhen scored ten goals as Nigeria won the fifth in 2015.
Q 25The Confederations Cup began in 1992 as the King Fahd Cup, organised and hosted by which country?
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia staged the 1992 and 1995 editions, named for its king, and lost the first final 3–1 to Argentina. FIFA took the event over in 1997 and renamed it the Confederations Cup.
Q 26Who lost the last Confederations Cup final 1–0 in 2017, two years before FIFA scrapped the tournament?
Chile
Chile lost to the reigning world champions, who claimed their first Confederations Cup; FIFA then handed its slot to an expanded Club World Cup.
Q 27Which nation beat Tunisia after extra time to win the first FIFA-run Arab Cup in Qatar in 2021?
Algeria
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.
Q 28What does Europe's club champion receive in FIFA's Intercontinental Cup, a knockout launched in 2024?
A bye to the final
A bye to the final is the European champion's privilege, so the first winners needed only one match, a 3–0 defeat of Mexico's Pachuca in Qatar in December 2024.
Q 29Why has men's Olympic football been an under-23 event since 1992?
To avoid rivalling the World Cup
To avoid rivalling the World Cup, FIFA had the men's Olympic tournament capped at under-23 from Barcelona 1992; since 1996 each squad may add three older players.
Q 30Which body, not FIFA itself, writes the Laws of the Game, with FIFA holding half the votes?
International Football Association Board
The International Football Association Board gives England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland one vote each and FIFA four. A change needs six votes, so FIFA cannot alter a law without two of them.