Institutional Aspects of FIFA Governance and Its Impact on International Relations

Abstract

The focus of this article is to show FIFA's participation as an actor in international relations through its governance actions. FIFA is a transnational private entity that governs one of the most famous and lucrative sports: football. First, we intend to demonstrate that FIFA acts globally through its gover-nance mechanism. Second, we try to understand its actions from a broader perspective of global governance and international power struggle among national states. After that, we explore the following dilemmas: 1) although FIFA's affiliates (the local football confederations) are also private entities, its teams are seen as official national representatives; 2) some non-sovereign nations have FIFA's recognition as members. Finally, we analyze some contradictions in FIFA's governance mechanism.