Professionalisation

National football associations

Each country that plays football has its own national football association. This guide explains what an FA does, how the four British associations relate to each other, and how the model spread around the world.

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What a national association does

A national football association is the governing body for football in a country, responsible for administering the game, selecting national teams and organising major competitions.

A national football association — usually abbreviated to FA, federation or its equivalent in other languages — is the body that takes responsibility for football within its country. It administers the game under the Laws of the Game, registers clubs and players, selects the national teams, runs major domestic competitions and represents the country in FIFA and the relevant continental confederation.

The model came from England in 1863, when the original Football Association was founded to agree a common set of rules for the game. Other countries that took up organised football set up similar bodies, and the basic shape — one recognised association representing each country internationally — became the standard model.

The English FA

The Football Association of England, founded in 1863, is the oldest national football body.

The Football Association was founded on 26 October 1863 at the Freemasons' Tavern in London. Its first task was to agree a single set of rules for the game — what became the original Laws of the Game. From the start, the FA was both an early rule-maker and a competition-organiser, running the FA Cup from 1871 onwards and selecting the England national team.

The FA has run continuously since 1863, making it the oldest football association in the world. It remains responsible for the England men's and women's national teams, for the FA Cup and FA Women's Cup, and for the wider governance of football in England. The Premier League and the English Football League run their own competitions, but operate under the FA's overall authority.

The other British associations

Scotland, Wales and Ireland each set up their own football associations in the 1870s and 1880s.

The Scottish Football Association was founded in 1873, ten years after the English FA. Its founding was driven by the early Scottish clubs, particularly Queen's Park, which had already played in the first international match the previous year. The SFA's role was to standardise rules and run competitions in Scotland, including the Scottish Cup, which began the same year.

The Football Association of Wales followed in 1876, founded in Wrexham by clubs in north Wales, and the Irish Football Association in 1880, founded in Belfast. The four British associations between them ran football in the United Kingdom and Ireland for the rest of the nineteenth century. After the partition of Ireland, the Football Association of Ireland was founded in 1921 to govern football in the new Irish Free State; the Irish FA continued to represent what is now Northern Ireland.

The British associations in international football

The four British nations continue to play as four separate countries in international football, and have a unique role in the Laws of the Game.

Four separate national teams

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each have their own football associations and their own national teams. This is a survival of the four British associations having been founded before international football was governed centrally, and FIFA has accepted the arrangement throughout its history.

Seats on IFAB

The four British associations each hold a seat on the International Football Association Board, the body that maintains the Laws of the Game. Together they share half of IFAB's votes, with FIFA holding the other half. Any change to the Laws requires a three-quarters majority, which means neither side can change the Laws alone.

Republic of Ireland

The Football Association of Ireland, founded in 1921, runs the Republic of Ireland national team. It is a separate body from the Irish FA, which governs Northern Ireland football. The two associations have a long history of cooperation and occasional dispute, with players historically able to choose between them under certain conditions.

Olympic football

At Olympic football tournaments, the four British nations have sometimes entered together as Great Britain rather than as separate countries. This is a special arrangement under the Olympic Charter and does not change their normal status as four independent FIFA members.

Read about Olympic football

Continental associations form

National associations followed across Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Netherlands and Denmark were among the first non-British countries to form national associations, with the KNVB and DBU both founded in 1889. Belgium followed in 1895. The Italian FIGC was founded in 1898, the German DFB in 1900, and the Spanish RFEF in 1909. France's FFF arrived later, in 1919, after an earlier umbrella body had run French football from the 1890s. Each association took on the same basic role as the British associations — administering the game, registering clubs and players, organising competitions and selecting the national team.

The associations were also the building blocks of international football. FIFA's membership model quickly centred on national associations. At its founding in 1904, most members were national associations, while Spain was represented by Madrid Football Club before the Spanish federation was fully established. Under FIFA's membership model, each country's international football is represented through a recognised national association.

South American associations

South American national associations followed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Argentine Association Football League, the forerunner of the modern Argentine FA, was founded in 1893 by Alexander Watson Hutton, a Scottish teacher. The Chilean federation followed in 1895, the Uruguayan in 1900, and the Brazilian after a longer period of regional rivalry. By the early twentieth century, the major football-playing countries in South America had begun forming national associations.

South American associations were among the earliest non-European members of FIFA, with Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay all joining FIFA before the First World War. The continental body, CONMEBOL, was founded in 1916, making it the oldest of the continental confederations.

What modern national associations do

A modern football association handles a much wider set of responsibilities than the bodies founded in the nineteenth century.

A modern national association governs the men's and women's professional and amateur game, runs the national teams at all age groups, registers players and clubs, licenses competitions, trains and licences referees, manages anti-doping and integrity programmes, and represents the country at FIFA and continental confederation level. Most associations also run development programmes for grassroots and youth football.

The associations themselves have grown into large organisations. The English FA, the German DFB, the Spanish RFEF and others run their own competition headquarters, training centres and commercial operations. The basic principle — one recognised body per country, member of FIFA, responsible for the national game — follows the nineteenth-century model, but the scale and complexity have grown enormously.