20150528 - FIFA

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA,



English: International Federation of Association Football) is the international governing body of association football (soccer), futsal and beach soccer. FIFA is responsible for the organisation of football's major international tournaments, notably the World Cup which commenced in 1930 and the Women's World Cup which commenced in 1991.
FIFA 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, membership now comprises 209 national associations. Member countries must each also be members of one of the six regional confederations into which the world is divided: Africa, Asia, Europe, North & Central America and the Caribbean, Oceania and South America.
Although FIFA does not control the rules of football, it is responsible for both the organisation of a number of tournaments and their promotion, which generate revenue from sponsorship. In 2013, FIFA had revenues of over 1.3 billion U.S. dollars, for a net profit of 72 million, and had cash reserves over 1.4 billion U.S. dollars.
Reports by investigative journalists have linked FIFA leadership with rapaciousness, corruption, bribery, and alleged vote-rigging pursuant to the election of FIFA President Sepp Blatter and the organization's decision to simultaneously award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively. These allegations culminated with the indictments of nine high-ranking FIFA officials and five corporate executives by the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice on charges including racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering. On 27 May 2015, several of these officials were taken into custody for questioning by Swiss authorities, who were launching a simultaneous, but separate criminal investigation into how the organization awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Those among these officials who were also indicted in the U.S. are expected to be extradited to face charges there as well



 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA
 http://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/index.html