The Confederations are the umbrella organisations of the national football associations on each continent. The AFC in Asia, CAF in Africa, the Football Confederation (CONCACAF) in North and Central America and the Caribbean, CONMEBOL in South America, UEFA in Europe and the OFC in Oceania all provide support to FIFA without encroaching on the rights of the national associations. In fact, the Confederations actually raise the profile of football further, by staging their own competitions at club and international level and though a range of other activities.
 Asian Football is synonymous with Fair Play. Indeed, Asian culture lends itself perfectly to sportsmanship, which is why footballers from the continent are famed for conducting themselves with grace and humility in victory or defeat. So it is fitting that an Asian team, Japan, was the first to earn official global recognition in the Fair Play stakes.
It was the 1968 Olympics in Mexico when FIFA introduced its Fair Play Award, a theme that survives to this day with the aim of promoting Fair Play as part and parcel of the game's development. The Japanese Olympic team was judged to be most deserving of the inaugural award for the way they upheld the ideals of Fair Play during the course of the tournament.
They also received the Pierre de Coubertin Fair Play Trophy from an international panel comprising UNESCO, AIPS and other sporting bodies. Since its introduction, the FIFA Fair Play theme has been embraced across the globe, the highlight being an annual Fair Play Day. AFC has embraced Fair Play since day one and continues to promote sportsmanship in all of its competitions.
Visit the AFC website for more on the Asian Football Confederation.
 An array of former and present Confederation of African Football world stars lined up on July 18th, 2007 to play in honour of Mandela at the Newlands Stadium in Cape Town for the charity. Dubbed “90 Minutes for Mandela”, the match was organised by FIFA to honour Nelson Mandela, the first democratic elected State President of South Africa. The game between African XI and Rest of the World XI is to serve as a tribute to the legendary South African on the occasion of his 89th Birthday.
Top on the list of players expected to feature in this evenings historic game are the legendary Pele, Edson Arantes de Nascimento, three time African footballer of the year, Samuel Eto’o, African football legends Abedi Pele, Kalusha Bwalya, George Oppong Weah and a host of others all billed to grace tonight’s occasion in the life of “Madiba”, an honorary title adopted by elders of Mandela’s clan. Cameroon and Barcelona striker, Eto has described this occasion as a memorable one in his career as he comes face to face with a great man he has admired all his life.
“I am touched by the opportunity to meet this great man I have always admired” said Eto’o who Spanish club, Barcelona paid a call on the honorary statesman in May during a visit.
Visit the Confederation of African Football website for more information.
 CONCACAF - The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football is one of six continental confederations of FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) and serves as governing body of football in this part of the world. It is composed of 40 national associations, from Canada in the north to Surinam in the south.
As the administrative body for the region, CONCACAF organizes competitions, offers training courses in technical and administrative aspects of the game, and helps to build football throughout the region. The primary function of the Confederation is the organization of competitions for national teams and clubs. It also conducts qualifying tournaments for FIFA events including the FIFA World Cup™, the FIFA Women's World Cup, FIFA world championships at youth levels and in beach football and futsal.
The CONCACAF Gold Cup™ is showpiece event for men’s national teams as it crowns the regional champion. The USA won the inaugural competition in 1991, defeating Honduras before 40,000 fans at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum in California. Mexico then won three consecutive titles, the third in 1998 before a crowd of 91,000 in Los Angeles, before Canada won its first major international honor in more than 100 years of football history in 2000. After the USA claimed the 2002 title, Mexico returned to the top of the Confederation with their fourth crown in 2003. The 2005 edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup™ was won by the USA. Visit the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football for more information.
 The Confederation of South American Football began in 1916, during the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Argentine independence. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina donated a trophy and invited the Federations of Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, to participate in a football championship, as part of the celebrations. All of the delegations came and participated in the tournament, considered the first official South American championship in history (although the America Cup was not yet at stake, since it was instituted a year later).
The South American championship was a great success. During it, Uruguayan football leader Hector Rivadavia Gomez found the ideal context to materialize an old personal project: creating the South American Football Confederation. It was then, that on July 9, 1916, in Buenos Aires, the exact date of the 100th anniversary of Argentine independence, football leaders from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay met in Buenos Aires to study the integrating idea of Rivadavia Gomez, which was approved ad-referendum by each of the national associations.
After those founding associations then came: Paraguay (1921), Peru (1925), Bolivia (1926), Ecuador (1927), Colombia (1936) and Venezuela (1952). CONMEBOL - is a Spanish cable abreviation deriving from CONfederacion sudaMEricana de futBOL. Visit the Confederation of South American Football for more information.
 UEFA - the Union of European Football Association - is the governing body of football on the continent of Europe. UEFA’s core mission is to promote, protect and develop European football at every level of the game, to promote the principles of unity and solidarity, and to deal with all questions relating to European football.
Founded in Basle, Switzerland on 15 June 1954, UEFA brought to fruition the pioneering vision of a handful of key football administrators of the time. Since then, the parent body of European football - one of six continental confederations of world football’s governing body FIFA - has grown into the cornerstone of the game on this continent, working and acting on behalf of Europe’s national football associations to promote football and strengthen its position as arguably the most popular sport in the world.
The guiding principle of the initiators in the early 1950s was the fostering and development of unity and solidarity among the European football community. Now, over 50 years later, UEFA’s mission remains very much the same. It is an association of associations based on representative democracy, but it has also become the ‘guardian’ of football in Europe, protecting and nurturing the well-being of the sport at all levels, from the elite and its stars to the thousands who play the game as a hobby. Visit the Union of European Football Association for more information.
 The idea of the Oceania Football Confederation, a confederation for the Pacific was first raised in 1964 when the soccer world was in Tokyo for the Olympic Games. Three gentlemen discussed the idea and they put in motion the formation of what was to become the OFC.
And so it was in 1966, that FIFA formally approved our proposal and the Oceania Football Confederation was officially born. We had been recognised as a confederation but we were still voiceless - not having representation on either the FIFA executive committee or any of the other committees. But the point was Oceania was born!
The founding members of the OFC were Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. The OFC's first-ever congress was held two years later and the delegates - responding, to the proposal by both Australia and New Zealand - agreed that Sir William Walkley and Ian McAndrew be appointed chairman and secretary/treasurer respectively. Both were from Australia. Sir William's fine opening remarks at the 1968 congress called on "all nations (to) work together for the development of football in the South Pacific". His words were true then and remain true today. Visit the Oceania Football Confederation for more information.
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