International Football Association Board

History

Establishment

Although the rules of football had largely been standardised by the early 1880s, England's Football Association (the FA), the Scottish Football Association (SFA), the Football Association of Wales (FAW) and the Irish Football Association (IFA) had conflicting rules. When international matches were played, the rules of the home team's national association were used. While this solution was technically feasible, it was impractical. To remedy this, the FAs initialised a meeting on 6 December 1882 in Queen's Hotel, Manchester in order to systematise a set of rules that could be applied uniformly to matches between the UK football associations' national teams. This was later named the "International Football Conference".

In the summer of 1885, the English FA declared that it legalised professionalism. The Scottish FA responded that it would refuse to allow professionals in its own national team, and would refuse to play international matches against an England team containing professionals. The Irish FA attempted to arbitrate by proposing that "an international conference should be held each year, say, in August, to be called in turn by each national association to deal with the laws of the game, and discuss other matters of interest to Association football, and at which international disputes could be adjusted".

Inaugural meeting and FIFA's integration

The initial meeting of IFAB took place at The FA's offices at Holborn Viaduct in London on 2 June 1886. The FA, SFA, FAW and IFA each had equal voting rights. It was chaired by Sir Francis Marindin, and attended by Charles W. Alcock acting as Secretary. The meeting was notable for Marindin's proposal, which outlined "That no player shall wear any kind of projection on the soles of heels of his boots with the exception of flat leather bars of an approved pattern".

During IFAB's annual general meeting (AGM) on 8 June 1912, the secretary, J.K. McDowall, scrutinised a letter that was attributed to the recently established FIFA, requesting that IFAB would invite a member of FIFA to sit on the Board. The petition was analysed, and IFAB concluded that it wasn't the right time to establish FIFA as a member, and McDowall proceeded to write a response to the organisation explaining the consensus. At a special meeting held on 25 January 1913 in Wrexham, IFAB approved FIFA's request after a proposition by The FA was made proposing that two members from FIFA should attend the board, making FIFA the fifth member of IFAB.

Post-war

For the first four post-war IFAB meetings (1920, 1921, 1922, and 1923), FIFA was once again excluded, on account of a dispute between FIFA and the home nations regarding payments to amateur players. From 1924, the dispute had been reconciled, and FIFA resumed attendance of IFAB meetings. In 1958, the Board agreed on a voting system that would be used to this day.

Since Irish partition in 1921, the IFA has evolved to become the organising body for football in Northern Ireland, with football in the Republic of Ireland being organised by the FAI. A request for the FAI to become a member of IFAB was denied at the 1923 annual general meeting.

Operations

Membership

The IFAB is made up of representatives from England's Football Association (The FA), the Scottish Football Association (SFA), the Football Association of Wales (FAW) and Northern Ireland's Irish Football Association (IFA)—and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA, the International Association Football Federation), the international governing body for football. The associations of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have one vote each and FIFA has four. IFAB deliberations must be approved by three-quarters of the vote, or at least six of the eight votes. Thus, FIFA's approval is necessary for any IFAB decision, but FIFA alone cannot change the Laws of the Game—they need to be agreed by at least two members – either England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. As of 2016, all members must be present for a binding vote to proceed.

Meetings of the board

The Board meets twice a year, once to decide on possible changes to the rules governing the game of Football (the Annual General Meeting (AGM)) and once to deliberate on its internal affairs (the Annual Business Meeting (ABM)). In FIFA World Cup years, the AGM is held at FIFA's offices; otherwise, it rotates between Northern Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland in that order. Four weeks before the AGM, the member associations must send their written proposals to the secretary of the host association. FIFA then prints a list of suggestions that are distributed to all other associations for examination. The AGM is held either in February or March and the ABM is held between September and October. In cases of necessity, the Board can meet in a Special Meeting in addition to the two ordinary annual meetings. As of December 2012, the last Special Meeting was hosted by FIFA in Zürich on 5 July 2012.

The decisions of each year's Annual General Meeting of the Board regarding changes to the Laws of the Game enter into force from 1 July (and are binding on FIFA and on the other members of the Board, and, given that FIFA's Statutes establish that FIFA and its member associations and affiliates adhere to the Laws of the Game laid down by IFAB, those changes bind also FIFA's other member associations, FIFA's continental confederations of member associations, and the subnational entities of the national associations) but confederations, member associations and other bodies whose current season has not ended by 1 July may delay the introduction of the adopted alterations to the Laws of the Game in their competitions until the beginning of their next season. As well as permanent changes to the Laws, IFAB also authorises trials of potential amendments.

Panels and Subcommittees

Source: