The Fédération internationale de football association is the international governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded in 1904 to oversee international competition among the national associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland, its membership now comprises 211 national associations. These national associations must each also be members of one of the six regional confederations into which the world is divided: CAF (Africa), AFC, UEFA (Europe), CONCACAF, OFC (Oceania) and CONMEBOL.
Franz Anton Beckenbauer is a German former professional footballer and manager. In his playing career he was nicknamed Der Kaiser because of his elegant style, dominance and leadership on the field, and also as his first name "Franz" is reminiscent of the Austrian emperors. He is widely regarded to be one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. A versatile player who started out as a midfielder, Beckenbauer made his name as a central defender. He is often credited as having invented the role of the modern sweeper (libero). With success at club and international level, he is one of nine players to have won the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA Champions League and the Ballon d'Or.
The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was originally the Super Competition, and later the European Super Cup. It was renamed the UEFA Super Cup in 1995, following a policy of rebranding by UEFA. It is not recognised as one of UEFA's major competitions.
Kurt Hans Biedenkopf was a German jurist, academic teacher and politician of the Christian-Democratic Union (CDU). He was rector of the Ruhr University Bochum.
The Portuguese Football FederationGOIH ComB is the governing body of football in Portugal. The federation was formed in 1914 as Portuguese Football Union by the three existing regional associations of Lisbon, Portalegre and Porto, before adopting its current name in 1926, and is based in the city of Oeiras. The (FPF) joined FIFA in 1923 and is also a founding member of UEFA.
The Faroe Islands national football team represents the Faroe Islands in association football and is governed by the Faroe Islands Football Association (FSF). The FSF became a member of FIFA in 1988 and UEFA in 1990 and represents the fourth-smallest UEFA country by population.
UEFA competitions, referred improperly by the mass media as European football, are the set of tournaments organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), generally in professional and amateur association football and futsal. The term was established in 1971 by the confederation to differentiate the men's football competitions under its administration, the first in history being held at a pan-European stage, from other international competitions carried out in the continent between 1960s and 1990s, such as the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, International Football Cup and Karl Rappan Cup, Cup of the Alps, Balkans Cup and the restructured Mitropa Cup. All these tournaments were organised by private bodies and/or at least two national associations and concerning one of more regional areas of Europe, not being recognised by UEFA for historic-statistical purposes.
Hubertus Heil is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) who has been serving as Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in the fourth cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel and the first cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 14 March 2018.
The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organised by UEFA. It was held in France from 10 June to 10 July 2016. Spain were the two-time defending champions, having won the 2008 and 2012 tournaments, but were eliminated in the round of 16 by Italy. Portugal won the tournament for the first time, following a 1–0 victory after extra time over the host team, France, in the final played at the Stade de France.
Hans Bangerter was a Swiss football administrator who was the General Secretary of the UEFA from 1960 to 1989. Starting in 1989 he served as chairman of the board of the Euro-Sportring Foundation. As of June 2019, Bangerter was still attending the UEFA Congress and major UEFA competition finals. He died on 29 July 2022, aged 98.
Giovanni Vincenzo "Gianni" Infantino is a Swiss football administrator and the current president of FIFA. He was first elected to the office during the 2016 FIFA Extraordinary Congress in February 2016, was re-elected in June 2019 and in March 2023. In January 2020, he was also elected a member of the International Olympic Committee.
Hakan Kadir Balta is a retired Turkish professional footballer who played as a defender for Galatasaray in the Süper Lig. At the start of the 2018/19 season he was released from his contract after over 10 years with the club.
The Football Association of Ireland is the governing body for association football in the Republic of Ireland.
Aigner is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
The European Club Association (ECA) is a body representing the interests of professional association football clubs in UEFA. It is the sole such body recognised by the confederation, and has member clubs in each UEFA member association. It was formed in 2008 after the merge between the G-14 and the European Club Forum, which comprised a small number of elite clubs and was unrecognised by UEFA. The ECA's mission statement is "to create a new, more democratic governance model that truly reflects the key role of the clubs". After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ECA suspended its seven Russian members - Zenit St Petersburg, FC Spartak Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow, CSKA Moscow, FC Krasnodar, Rubin Kazan, and FC Rostov.
The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the European Championship competition, UEFA president Michel Platini declared that the tournament would be hosted in several nations as a "romantic" one-off event, with 11 cities in 11 UEFA countries each providing venues for the tournament, making it the second tournament in the history after the 2007 AFC Asian Cup to have more than two nations co-hosting it. Defending champions Portugal, who won UEFA Euro 2016 in France, were eliminated in the round of 16 by Belgium. Italy won their second European Championship title by beating England on penalties in the final following a 1–1 draw after extra time. The win came exactly on the 39th anniversary of Italy's 1982 FIFA World Cup Final win over West Germany.
The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body.
Elkhan Mammadov has joined FIFA as Director Member Associations Europe on April 20, 2022, while remaining a Vice President of AFFA. Before that, he has been the Executive Vice President and the General Secretary of Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA), Project Leader for UEFA EURO 2020 Baku Bid, vice-president of UEFA Fair Play and Social Responsibility Committee, FIFA Fair Play and Social Responsibility Committee Member.
The 2020 UEFA Super Cup was the 45th edition of the UEFA Super Cup, an annual football match organised by UEFA and contested by the reigning champions of the two main European club competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. The match featured German club Bayern Munich, the winners of the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League, and Spanish club Sevilla, the winners of the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League. It was played at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest, Hungary on 24 September 2020.
Scotland–Ireland '08 was an unsuccessful bid by the Scottish Football Association (SFA) and the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) to host the 2008 UEFA European Championships. In February 2002, the Scottish FA and the FA of Ireland officially confirmed a joint bid for Scotland and the Republic of Ireland to host the 2008 UEFA European Championships. Had the bid been successful, it would have been the first major competition hosted by both nations and the first held on the British Isles since UEFA Euro 1996, hosted by England.
