Switzerland, Home of the IOC and FIFA Headquarters

Many international sports federations, including the IOC, FIFA and UEFA, decided to settle in Switzerland because of its tax flexibility.

Switzerland seems to be the land of sports federations. The country is the home to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and FIFA (International Federation of Associated Football). And it hosts many other organizations as well. We’ll tell you more about this subject in the following article.

Switzerland and its dozens of federations

To understand why so many sports organizations choose Switzerland as their home, we have to talk about the national context. Federations that choose to establish themselves in the Canton of Vaud are exempt from direct communal cantonal and federal taxes.

This isn’t the case in the rest of the Swiss territory. However, sports organizations can negotiate payment reductions with the local authorities. The financial advantages are very interesting, and that’s why more and more organizations and non-sports companies are moving to Switzerland.

The first two years after they settle in the country, the organizations are exempt from paying rent. Local authorities also help them solve any administrative problem that may arise.

As if all of this wasn’t enough, this European country offers other advantages as well. It has qualified personnel who speak more than one language, high-quality services, a stable political situation, and liberal laws.

Some examples of federations that are based in Switzerland are the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), the International Ski Federation and the International Archery Federation. The first one has a fiscal domicile in the canton of Neuchatel, the second one in Bern, and the third one in Lausanne.

We can also mention the International Cycling Federation and the Volleyball Federation, both based in Lausanne, the Ice Hockey Federation in Zurich, and the Basketball Federation in Geneva.

Of course, those aren’t the only, or the first organizations to settle in Switzerland. The International Olympic Committee, founded in 1894, moved its headquarters to Lausanne in 1914. Likewise, FIFA, created in 1904 in Paris, moved to Zurich in 1932. Another example is the European Union of Football Association (UEFA); the organization was based in the French capital when it opened in 1954, but in 1995 it moved to Nyon, from the Canton of Vaud.

IOC headquarters in Switzerland

The International Olympic Committee recently opened nine headquarters in Lausanne. To celebrate their 125th birthday (as it was founded in 1894), the new ‘Olympic house’ is already in operation after an investment of almost 150 million Swiss francs.

The 183,000-square-feet building houses the 500 permanent employees who used to be spread out among four smaller headquarters, all in the same locality.

Along the shores of a lake and in the Vidy district, this new building was erected on one of the former headquarters of the IOC (pictured in the cover image of this article). After the celebrations, they used the occasion to choose the city of the Winter Games of 2026.

FIFA headquarters

The highest authority in soccer has also had its main headquarters in Swiss territory since 1932, two years after Uruguay hosted the World Cup for the first time. Some people believe that FIFA chose this country because of its neutrality in such troubled times.

Switzerland is at the heart of Europe, and it’s very stable, as well as being multicultural and modern. At least that’s what FIFA representatives state every time someone asks why they continue to be in this country after so many decades.

UEFA and its headquarters in Switzerland

This association isn’t only based in Switzerland, but it also originated in this country; more precisely in Basel, in 1954. However, they initially established that UEFA would have its physical headquarters in Paris.

It took more than four decades for it to change its location and settle definitively in Nyon, a town near Lake Leman. As they explained at the time, this change was due to the Swiss geographical situation and proximity to one of the largest Swiss airports (the one in Geneva).

Apparently, Switzerland attracts many international sports federations for various reasons. Therefore, it’s not surprising that more and more organizations are choosing to settle there.