What is the IFAB?

On Wednesday the International Football Association Board (IFAB) met in Cardiff to discuss, amongst other things, video technology and any rule changes which they think could improve the game. But what is the IFAB?

Back in the 1880s football was becoming more and more popular as a spectator sport. The FA Cup had been running since 1872, the same year Scotland played England in the first international match, and in the early 1880s England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland (later just Northern Ireland) were planning to create a regular tournament between them. There was a problem with this though, as each association had slightly different rules and this meant that matches between teams usually had at least one argument over a decision from the referee (a bit like the Premier League today).

Representatives from the FA, the SFA, the FAW and the IFA met in December 1882 and proposed the Home International Championship and also a committee to standardise the rules for this tournament. This committee became the IFAB and they first met in 1886. FIFA was then formed in 1904 as football started to become popular around the world. FIFA agreed to abide by the rules laid down by the IFAB to help keep standardisation. FIFA were allowed into the IFAB in 1913 due to the increasing popularity away from the UK.

The IFAB are still the guardians of the laws of football and no changes to the rules are made without their approval. The current voting system is one where each of the UK FAs have 1 vote each and FIFA have 4 votes. A decision needs at least 6 votes to go through, so no changes can be made without 2 representatives from FIFA agreeing. But FIFA can’t change a rule without some support from the FAs meaning that the British FAs play a major role in shaping the rules.

It is this organisation that has prevented some of Sepp Blatter’s crazier ideas (tighter shorts for women to name one) becoming law, and recent votes have meant there has been little discussion on video technology. The last time it was voted on all 4 FIFA representatives and 2 of the FAs voted against it but now Sepp Blatter has asked for a discussion on technology in football with 13 companies requesting to show how their technology can be used to see if the ball has crossed the goal line. Replays will also be discussed at the meeting in what could be one of the most important meetings since that very first one over 120 years ago. However no major decisions will be made until a full meeting in March.

FIFA, Sepp Blatter