The football hierarchy in a nutshell
To fully understand the framework that FIFA and confederations, hereunder UEFA will have to comply with when making decisions that affect football clubs, football associations, players and other stakeholders within the football family, it is necessary to have an understanding of the relationship between the parties.
On top of the football hierarchy is FIFA, which is the international football association. In accordance with its statutes Article 2, FIFA aims to, inter alia, improve the game of football, organise its own international competitions, draw up regulations and provisions governing the game of football, control every type of association football and promote integrity, ethics and fair play.
A confederation is a group of associations recognised by FIFA that belong to the same continent. There are six such confederations: UEFA (Europe), CONMEBOL (South America), AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), Concacaf (North and Central America and the Caribbean) and OFC (Oceania). All the six confederations are recognised by FIFA, which gives them certain rights and obligations pursuant to the FIFA Statutes Article 22 et seq.
A national football association will typically be responsible for organising and supervising football in its country. However, in order to become a full member of the international football family, an association that wants to become a member of FIFA, i.e. a member association, shall apply in writing to the FIFA general secretariat, pursuant to the FIFA Statutes Article 11 (3). Further, as regulated in Article 11 (2), a football association can only become a member of FIFA if it is a member of a confederation. Currently, FIFA has 211 affiliated associations[1] which is practically every country in the world (and some[2]).
A national football association will consist of member clubs. Although clubs may be organised differently, depending on the statutes and regulations of the relevant confederation or association, a club will normally be an entity which is formed and governed by a board and has members which may consist of football players and others with different roles in the club. Although the club could choose to not be a part of its national association, a membership in the national association would be a requirement for the club to take part in the competitions arranged by the national associations, i.e. leagues and cups.
It is worth noting that FIFA also recognises personal stakeholders within football, such as players and coaches.
Having this football hierarchy in mind, FIFA’s legal basis for making decisions that affects football associations, football clubs, football players or football coaches, is that a confederation that wants to be a member of FIFA must accept to comply with FIFA’s statutes and regulations. Further, a football association that wants to be a member of FIFA and a confederation must accept to comply with FIFA’s and the confederation’s statutes and regulations, a club that wants to be a member of a national association must accept to comply with FIFA’s, the confederation’s and the national association’s statutes and regulations, whilst a player or coach that wants to be a member of a club, must accept to comply with the statutes and regulations of FIFA, the confederation, the national association and the club. As such, all parties that fall under the jurisdiction of FIFA or a confederation will have, through its application of membership with the relevant entity, accepted to comply with the relevant regulations.
It should be noted that although sport is given a high degree of autonomy, which in short means that the sport itself can decide which rules should apply in the field of sport and establish bodies that deal with violations and disputes within the sport itself, sports bodies must operate within a certain set of frames. If sports regulations are in breach of governmental regulations, decisions based on these sports regulations will be deemed void, such as when The European Court of Justice, in the Bosman ruling, overturned a decision based on football regulations that prevented a football player from taking a job in a other EU country .
[1] https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/associations
[2] Some football associations are member associations despite not being fully recognised as independent member states by the UN, such as Kosovo and Gibraltar.
