Football Language: Confederation
In this football language post we explain the term ‘Confederation’ which is the name for the organisations in charge of governing football. Don’t forget we have hundreds more explanations of football language in our football glossary and we also have a page full of football cliches. If you have questions or comments about this or any other phrase then email us at: admin@languagecaster.com.
Confederation: FIFA is the world organising body of football which means that they run the game; they are in charge of world football. They organise the Men’s and Women’s World Cups and lots of other world tournaments, including under-age ones. But there are other organisations that run football in different regions around the world and these are known as confederations. A confederation is an organisation that is made up of different groups or in this case, countries, so for example the Asian Confederation has 47 different countries, while UEFA has 55. There are six different confederations around the world: UEFA is the European one; CONCACAF is in charge of football in North and Central America (41 members); CONMEBOL is the South American confederation (10 members, the AFC is in charge of Asian football, while CAF does the same for African football (54 members). Finally, OFC is the Oceania Confederation which looks after football in the Pacific Ocean region and this has 11 members.
- Example: The FIFA Confederations Cup is a tournament for countries that have won their confederation championship (e.g. the European Championship). It is held every four years and takes place in the country where the next World Cup is due to take place.
- Example: The president of the Confederation of African Football (Caf) has said there will be a “zero tolerance” approach to ensuring stadiums are safe at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), which kicks off in January. (BBC.co.uk, October 13 2023)
Related Vocabulary
- CONMEBOL
- UEFA
- CONCACAF
- OFC
- AFC
- CAF
- FIFA Confederations Cup
- FIFA
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