FIFA Congress

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  The FIFA Congress is the supreme legislative body of football's global governing body, the International Association Football Federation, known worldwide by its acronym FIFA. Every year, representatives from all 211 FIFA member associations gather and each casts exactly one vote, regardless of how large or small their nation's football program might be. This body decides who will host the World Cup, who will lead FIFA itself, and what rules will govern the game across the planet. How did a congress that once gathered only five member associations grow into the 211-strong annual assembly it is today? And what do the gaps in its history reveal about the game's place in the wider world?

• 2. A Body Born in Paris

  ›

  At the 1st Congress in Paris in 1904, just five member associations attended. Robert Guérin was elected the first president of FIFA at that gathering. Attendance climbed steadily in the years that followed: by the 4th Congress in Amsterdam in 1907, twelve associations were present, and by the 9th Congress in Stockholm in 1912, the number had reached seventeen. The congress moved from city to city across Europe in those early decades, meeting in Vienna, Budapest, Milan, Dresden, and Copenhagen before the 11th Congress in Christiania, now known as Oslo, in 1914 brought the run to a halt.

• 3. Wars and Silences

  ›

  Between 1915 and 1922, no congress was held at all. The First World War had made international gatherings impossible. When football's leaders finally reconvened, it was in Geneva in 1923 for the 12th Congress, where Jules Rimet was elected FIFA president. That recovery proved fragile. The 24th Congress met in Paris in 1938, and then another silence fell. No congress took place again from 1939 to 1945, the years of the Second World War. The 25th Congress, held in Luxembourg in 1946, was the first since the war ended, and it carried exceptional weight: at that single gathering, both Brazil and Switzerland were chosen as hosts for successive World Cups.

• 4. The Rhythm of Annual Meetings

  ›

  Before 1998, the FIFA Congress met every two years rather than every year. The shift to annual sessions changed the pace at which the organisation could respond to the expanding global game. Ordinary congresses meet on that yearly schedule; extraordinary congresses sit outside the cycle and can be called at any time by the FIFA Council, provided one-fifth of the membership supports the call. A total of ten extraordinary congresses have taken place across the organisation's history, in cities stretching from Brussels in 1908 to Seoul in 2002, and more recently in online sessions held in 2024 and 2026.

• 5. Elections and Contested Contests

  ›

  Presidential elections have taken place at only twelve numbered congresses: the 1st, 3rd, 12th, 29th, 30th, 39th, 51st, 53rd, 61st, 65th, 69th, and 73rd. Most of those elections were uncontested. Only five have featured two or more candidates: the 39th Congress in Frankfurt in 1974, the 51st in Paris in 1998, the 53rd in 2002, the 65th in Zürich in 2015, and the 2016 Extraordinary Congress. The 1974 contest produced a turning point, when João Havelange was elected president in Frankfurt. Havelange went on to win re-election four more times, at the 41st, 43rd, 45th, and 47th congresses, spanning from Buenos Aires in 1978 to Rome in 1990.

• 6. Zürich and the 2016 Crisis

  ›

  At the 65th Congress in Zürich in 2015, Sepp Blatter was elected to a fifth presidential term. That term did not last. An extraordinary congress was called in Zürich, and on the 26th of February 2016, Gianni Infantino was elected as FIFA's new president. Blatter would ordinarily have remained in his position until a successor was chosen, but because he had been suspended, Acting FIFA President Issa Hayatou was the person who presided over the organisation in the interim. Infantino was then re-elected at the 69th Congress in Paris in 2019 and again at the 73rd Congress in Kigali in 2023.

• 7. Hosting Decisions Through History

  ›

  World Cup host selections have been a defining function of the Congress since the 18th Congress in Barcelona in 1929, when Uruguay was chosen to stage the 1930 World Cup. Italy, France, Brazil, Sweden, England, Germany, South Africa, Japan, South Korea, and the United States have all had their hosting rights decided at these gatherings. At the 68th Congress in Moscow in 2018, the United States, Mexico, and Canada were jointly awarded the 2026 World Cup. The 74th Congress in Bangkok in 2024 selected Brazil as host of the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup, while a separate extraordinary congress in Zürich that year confirmed Morocco, Portugal, and Spain as the 2030 World Cup hosts and Saudi Arabia as the 2034 host. The 77th Congress, scheduled for Rabat, is expected to announce the host of the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup.