The 6 Soccer Confederations

There are six soccer confederations in all. Each of the world's national teams are members of them.

FIFA stands for the International Federation of Association Football. In this article, we’ll be diving into all six soccer confederations that make up this organization.

What are the six soccer confederations of FIFA?

It took 50 years for all six soccer federations to be established. There are currently six soccer confederations that FIFA sanctions. These are the following:

1. South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL): the first of the soccer confederations

This was the first soccer confederation that they created. They established it on July 9th, 1916 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It’s currently made up of ten countries. That also makes it the smallest soccer confederation in the world. Its headquarters is also in Luque, which is a city in Paraguay. The president of the CONMEBOL is Alejandro Dominguez.

At its inception, CONMEBOL also only had four members: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay. The rest would join later. All of them are affiliated with FIFA as well as with the International Olympic Committee.

The first tournaments of this association were the Copa America and the Copa Libertadores. Experts consider this confederation’s world cup qualifiers to be the toughest and most competitive in the world.

2. Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)

The European confederation was the second to come into being. It happened 40 years after the CONMEBOL’s birth. The UEFA was established on June 15th, 1954 in Basel, Switzerland.

Its headquarters are currently in another one of that country’s cities – Nyon. The organization’s first headquarters were located in Paris. Currently, its president is the Slovene Aleksander Ceferin.

At 55 members, this is also the biggest confederation of the six. It’s also the one that’s won the most awards. The UEFA has 223 official titles among all the national teams under its banner.

Aside from including all of the European countries, Turkey, Cyprus, Kazakhstan, and Israel all play with the UEFA. Its main competitions are the Eurocup and the Champions League.

3- The Asian Football Confederation

They created the third confederation on our list in 1954 as well. It’s actually slightly older than the European one because it was founded on the 8th of May. Its headquarters are in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Forty-seven associations also make up this group and its president is Salman Ibn Ibrahim Al Jalifa from Qatar.

The AFC is in charge of organizing the Asian Cup and the ASEAN, EAFF, WAFF, and SAFF soccer championships. These are internal divisions of the confederation’s member countries. It’s also in charge of the AFC League of Champions.

4. Confederation of African Football (CAF)

This one was founded in 1957 and is comprised of 54 members. It has the second-most countries after its European counterpart. Its headquarters are located in Egypt. Its current president is Amaju Pinnick, from Nigeria.

The CAF divides its participating national teams into different zones. Zone one is the north, two is in the west, three is in the east, four stands for central, five is central-east, and six is in the south. It organizes the African Cup of Nations as well as the COSAFA, CECAFA, WAFU, and CEMAC cups. The League of Champions of the CAF also falls under its purview.

5. The Confederation of North, Central America, and the Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF)

The American continent has two soccer confederations. After they created the South American one, the people in the north created CONCACAF on September 21, 1961, in Mexico City. Its current headquarters are in Miami and 41 federations play for it. They divide these into three zones. The CONCACAF’s current president is Victor Montagliani.

This confederation’s main tournaments are the CONCACAF Cup, the CONCACAF Gold Cup, and also the Nations League.

6. Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), the youngest of the soccer confederations

This is the youngest of our six soccer confederations. They founded this one in 1966 and 14 countries are also united under it. Its headquarters is in Auckland, New Zealand and its president is Lambert Maltock from Vanuatu. Despite what you might expect, Australia isn’t a part of the OFC. Instead, it plays with the AFC (the Asian confederation).

This is also the only confederation that doesn’t have a guaranteed spot in the World Cup. It has to defeat the fifth-place country from the South American qualification round. This match is known as the repechage.

As of this article’s writing, according to FIFA’s computations, the best team in the AFC is Iran. The CAF’s best is Senegal. As for CONCACAF, Mexico is its highest-ranked team. Brazil is top of the CONMEBOL, New Zealand is the best of the OFC, and Belgium is Europe’s strongest.