FOR SOCCERLENS: OFC (Oceania Football Confederation)
For an overview of all 6 federations of FIFA click here. Here we take an in depth look at:
OFC
Background
The Oceania Football Confederation is the federation for the pacific islands located around Australia, though since 2006 it no longer contains the Aussies. Without them, the OFC is positively miniscule by comparison with the other federations.
The federation was formed in 1966 by the FAs of Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia, however it wasn’t until 30 years later, in 1996, that it was confirmed as a fully-fledged confederation of FIFA and given a seat on it’s committee. In 1990 it was put on a probationary period of six years, where it was upgraded to a ‘geographical entity’ and then at the FIFA congress in Zurich, the confirmation of the new federation was accepted by a staggering majority of 170 for and just 1 against.
Plans to form the Oceania federation came into existence when the AFC rejected requests from Australia and New Zealand to be members, leaving the 2 nations with no ‘home’ in the scheme of FIFA. The acorn was planted in 1964 and they had 2 years to work on the blueprint, ready for the FIFA congress in 1966, where they were officially recognised as a federation, even though not on FIFA’s board.
The 1970s were a topsy turvy time for the new federation, with Australia departing to persue attempts to join the AFC and Chinese Tapei (Taiwan) going the other direction, leaving the AFC and joining the OFC, though in the late 80s they returned to the AFC.
There are 17 member nations in the OFC, largely made up of very small pacific islands where football isn’t the main sport. Australia as a country is around 10 times bigger than every other OFC nation put together, so they unsurprisingly dominated the federation and this led them to move to the AFC, in order to seek bigger challenges and to ‘give the others a chance’.
The president is Reynald Temarii from the French Polynesia of Tahiti, who also sits on the FIFA executive committee as a vice president. In his younger years, though he’s only 40 now, he played for Nantes in the French league and for his country (Tahiti) in a career that included a South Pacific Olympic Games gold medal.
Of the OFC’s 17 members, only 11 of them are members of FIFA, with Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau and Tuvalu not being eligible due to not reaching certain criterias FIFA sets, as these are very small islands with small football interest.
The OFC doesn’t get a full spot in the FIFA World Cup, but it is possible for a team from the federation to reach the finals via intercontinental play-off games. Since 1966 they have usually been awarded half a spot, which means that the winner of their competition plays a team, for example 5th placed in the CONMEBOL or AFC, and the winner goes through to the finals. For USA ‘94 they only received a quarter of a spot, which means that the winner had to get through 2 qualification games.
As a result, there has only ever been 3 World Cups with OFC representatives in the finals; Australia twice and New Zealand once. 2006 saw Australia reach the 2nd round of the finals, but the other 2 occasions saw both Australia (at West Germany ‘74) and New Zealand (at Spain ‘82) fail to get past the 1st round of the finals.
With the Aussies now gone, the chances of the OFC being in the World Cup finals is significantly reduced, but the federation is growing all the time and is pushing more and more in recent years for better global recognition in the world of football, with new initiatives and better training and education of the game.
Competitions
Nations:
The OFC Nations Cup is the national competition in Oceania and has taken place 8 times with just 2 winners; New Zealand and Australia winning 4 each. From ‘96 it was a two-yearly competition, taking place at various times in the year ranging from May to November.
In a previous incarnation as the Oceania Cup, this competition actually started in 1973, during a time when Australia were not part of the federation. The competition was held and won by New Zealand, but then it disappeared until 1980. In the second time of running Australia were back in the federation and won the competition, which was held in New Caledonia. In both instances Tahiti took home runners-up medals.
After 2 sporadic events, the competition then disappeared again, this time for 16 years, finally being reborn as the Oceania Nations Cup in 1996. This competition ran every 2 years until 2004, with Australia winning 3 times and New Zealand twice, then Australia parted company at the start of 2006, so were not involved when New Zealand won in 2008. It is seen by many to now be a one-horse race, as New Zealand is far bigger than the other nations.
The format of the competition changes almost every time it takes place but the 2008 style is believed to be an on-going system. New Zealand receive automatic qualification and then the team who win gold, silver and bronze at the South Pacific Games join them in a round-robin league. Each team plays each other home and away, so after 6 games each the team top of the league is the winner.
As well as being crowned OFC Nations Cup champions, they also qualify for the federation’s play-off play in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Clubs:
The OFC Champions League (also known as the O-League) was won by an Australian team every time, prior to the Aussies leaving the OFC and has been won by a New Zealand side every time since.
The current format of the tournament is 2 groups of 3 teams that play each other home and away. The winner of each group plays a two-legged final to determine the champion.
Women’s football
Much like in the men’s competitions, the OFC Women’s Championship is dominated by New Zealand and Australia, but was won twice by Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) during their time in the OFC.
The 2007 tournament saw 6 sides withdraw prior to the event, leaving 4 teams to battle it out in a league system; New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Solomon Islands. A hierarchy of Australia (now departed), New Zealand, then Papua New Guinea theoretically exists in this competition.
FOR SOCCERLENS: CAF (Confederation of African Football)
For an overview of all 6 federations of FIFA click here. Here we take an in depth look at:
CAF
Background
The Confederation of African Football (or Confédération Africaine de Football as it’s known to it’s mom) covers the giant continent of Africa and is the federation that follows it’s geographical continent the closest. It has the most member nations (55), even more so than UEFA (53), and the only place in Africa omitted is the territory of Western Sahara, on the northern section of the West Coast.
Over history, African nations have struggled to compete in world football, due to economic difficulties in large parts of the continent, but recent success stories such as Adebayor, Eto’o, Drogba, Essien and (who can forget) Roger Milla, prove that the talent is not lacking there.
For a long time Africa struggled for recognition on FIFA’s board, with many countries lobbying against allowing them to have a confederation that was part of FIFA. Luckily for Africa, it had more friends than doubters and eventually got voted in to be represented at FIFA’s congresses. Doubts had been raised about the quality of football in the continent, but eventually sense was seen, allowing the CAF to form and for African football to be given the opportunity to try and catch up with some of the leading nations of the time.
The confederation was formed on 8th Feb 1957, around the same time as UEFA, Europe’s counterpart, but the economic advantages that UEFA benifitted from have seen it grow exponentially larger. The CAF has also seen a lot of infighting within it’s ranks and structure, which have also hindered growth and plans to encourage that growth.
The Avenida Hotel in Lisbon, Portugal on 7 Jun 1956 was the place and time of the first talks that led to the formation of the CAF, held between the FAs of Sudan, Egypt and South Africa. The following February they were joined by the Ethiopan FA in north East Africa in Khartoum, Sudan in talks that saw the official formation of the African confederation; the CAF.
Things haven’t always ran smoothly for the CAF though, it’s first difficulties arising from the Apartheid issues in South Africa. FIFA had accepted the white-only South African team but not everyone in the CAF was agreement with this. The racism problems dragged on for a long time before finally being resolved with a solution where everyone involved was happy. During this time the African Cup of Nations began, but due to not being willing to enter a multi-racial team, South Africa were not allowed to enter.
The CAF began life based in Khartoum, Sudan but now sweats it’s tits off in the scorching heat of Cairo, after a fire caused issues including the loss of records (as in documents, not their Frank Sinatra collection!). The president is a fella called Issa Hayatou, who actually plied his sporting trade as a runner and basketballer. Seven years ago he competed against Sepp Blatter in the election for president of FIFA and Blatter’s win attracted a lot of scepticism, from Hayatou fans and others wary of Blatter and his ways.
Competitions
Clubs:
Club-wise, the CAF run a competition very similar to the UEFA Champions League, called the CAF Champions League, which operates as a knockout cup, then a group stage, then back to knockout for the final stages. It is officially named the MTN CAF Champions League, named so because of the mobile phone company that sponsors the competition.
The clubs aim to win the main prize pot of $1m, with the FA they belong to also being awarded $50,000. Since the early 80s, Egypt have dominated the competition with 11 wins, split between Al-Ahly and El Zamalek. Back in 1969, Egypt also had a winning nation with Ismaily SC, when Egpyt was known as the United Arab Republic.
The competition is a massive target for many African clubs, with nearly a quarter of a million dollars being paid for reaching the group stages, money that is a big help to aid them to raise the standard of African football with a view to eventually being able to keep many of their best players playing in their home continent, instead of being lured to Europe.
Prior to 1997, the competition was called the African Cup of Champions Clubs and was historically competed between the winners of each nation’s domestic league and the holder. In recent years it has increased to a 64 team tournament, now including 12 2nd placed teams from the countries highest ranked by the CAFs 5-Year Ranking system.
The secondary club competition is the CAF Confederation Cup, which began in 1975 as the African Cup Winners’ Cup and now also incorporates the CAF Cup, which ran from 1992 to 2004. The tournament is competed between the best of the African teams that didn’t qualify for the Champions League. The competition includes knockout rounds and group stages, as well as teams eliminated from the Champions League joining along the way. The winner is awarded $660k from which $625 goes to the club and $35k to the FA the club belongs to. Since becoming the Confederations Cup in 2004, it has always been won by north-west African clubs.
Nations:
Nation-wise, the CAF organises the African Cup of Nations, which takes place every 2 years in January and February. Due to pressure from European clubs, the competition is being forced to change to the summer and will also have to switch the year it runs in order to not clash with the FIFA World Cup. The CAF are not happy with these enforced changes, mainly because the majority of Africa does not have suitable weather conditions in June and July for playing football, so it will seriously reduce the amount of possible host locations.
The cup began in 1957 with just 3 nations competing but has now grown large enough to make a qualification process necessary. The finals are now competed between 16 nations that have made their way through the qualification stages by either winning their group or being one of the best runners up. Much like the Champions League, Egypt are the most successful nation in the competition with 6 titles and Ghana and Cameroon are on their tail with 4 wins each. In all, 13 nations have won the competition through it’s history of different incarnations and formats.
Women’s football
The CAF Women’s Championship takes place usually every 2 years, beginning in 1991 and was amazingly won by Nigeria for the first 7 instances. The Nigerian ladies beat Ghana 3 times in the final and both Cameroon and South Africa twice each, including an 11-2 aggregate thrashing of South Africa in 1995. 2008’s competition saw the first new winner, when Nigeria were knocked out in the semi-final by Equitorial Guinea who went on to win the tournament, beating South Africa in the final.
FOR SOCCERLENS: CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football)
For an overview of all 6 federations of FIFA click here. Here we take an in depth look at:
CONCACAF
Background
CONCACAF stands for (take a deep breath) the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football and is the body that governs the national and club football of North America, Central America, the Caribbean islands and also includes 3 South American nations; Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.
There are 40 member nations of CONCACAF, though 80-90% of the geographical area is taken up by just two nations (USA and Canada), with Mexico being the only other sizable nation in the federation. Five of the members of CONCACAF are not eligible to take part in FIFA competitions (primarily the World Cup), these being; Sint Maarten (part of the Netherlands Antilles, off the east coast of Puerto Rico), French Guyana (an overseas region of France on the north coast of South America), Guadeloupe (another French region, an archipelago south east of Cuba), Martinique (another French region, south of Guadeloupe) and Saint-Martin (the French half of the island that Sint Maarten is also part of).
The federation came to be in Mexico City back in 1961, when the Football Confederation of Central America and the Caribbean (CCCF) and the North American Football Confederation (NAFC) merged into one confederation.
CONCACAF nations have hosted the FIFA World Cup 3 times to date; Mexico 70, Mexico 86 and USA 94 and the USA is in the bidding to host the 2018 or 2022 tournament.
The president of the federation is Jack Austin Warner from Trinidad and Tobago,who is a businessman, former teacher and also the owner of the very interestingly named Joe Public FC, a club in his home nation. Controversy seems to follow the man like flies around… err… dog doodoo. He and his family were accused of selling World Cup tickets illegally and were fined $1m, of which only a quarter of has been paid.
He also allegedly attempted to get the Scottish FA to pay cheques to him personally that were due to the Trinidad and Tobago FA. Warner is also very loose tongued and unprofessional with some of the things he says to the press, having upset Dwight Yorke, Roy Keane and the English FA amongst others with comments that should not be made in public when you hold the kind of office he does.
Competitions
Clubs:
For the clubs in this federation the competition is the CONCACAF Champions League. Up until 2008 it was known as the Champions Cup but is now looking to boost it’s profile with a rebranding, particularly with soccer’s growing popularity in the United States and the, still largely untapped, huge market there.
After forming CONCACAF in ‘61, they got straight to work and organised the new tournament to crown the champion club of the federation. It was won by CD Guadalajara of Mexico in it’s first instance and that set the precedent for things to come, with Mexico dominating the tournament. It has been won by a Mexican team 25 times, as well as 12 Mexican runners up.
The format of the competition changed a number of times, but generally was a knockout with 8 teams competing, 4 from North America, 3 from Central America and 1 from the Caribbean. From August 2008 the tournament changed format, with 24 teams competing, of which 16 take part in the group stage. The preliminary stage is a 2-legged aggregate score knockout between 16 teams who were lower ranked in their national leagues, reducing the field to 16 teams. Four groups of 4 teams then play each other home and away and the qualification to the quarter finals will be the top 2 teams in each group, therefore halving the number of teams remaining in the competition.
After that it is a knockout competition, again 2 legs and aggregate score determining the victor. Unlike many tournaments, the final is also 2 legs with a home and away match, rather than the usual standard of a neutral venue game with just one match.
The 24 teams reach the competition through their own domestic leagues, made up as follows;
- 4 teams from the US’s MLS
- 1 Canadian team
- 4 Mexican teams
- 3 Costa Rican teams
- 3 Honduran teams
- 2 teams from El Salvador
- 2 teams from Guatemala
- 2 teams from Panama
- and 3 teams from the Caribbean, who qualify via the CFU Club Championship
Nations:
The nations of CONCACAF compete in the Gold Cup, a two-yearly competition and the most successful team in it’s history is Mexico, but in the last 20 years the USA have seen a large amount of success, finishing in the top 3 in 9 out of 10 competitions.
The tournament began in 1963, two years after the formation of CONCACAF, and was originally called the CONCACAF Championship. The first event took place in El Salvador and the home nation finished runners up to Costa Rica. The competition ran every 2 years till 1971, when it became the qualification tournament for FIFA’s World Cup and therefore every 4 years, until 1991 when the Gold Cup was formed.
Since the formation of the Gold Cup, it’s popularity has flourished and the tournament is now well respected, well supported and hard fought for. The USA have hosted every tournament, co-hosting with Mexico in 1993 and 2003, and both of them have won the competition 4 times each. Canada have a solitary title from the 2000 tournament which saw many shocks, the biggest of which was neither the USA nor Mexico reaching the semi-finals.
Women’s football
The women’s tournament in CONCACAF also doubles as the qualification for the FIFA Women’s World Cup, and is now known as the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup. It began in 1991 as the CONCACAF’s Women’s Championship and the first 3 tournaments (’91, ‘93 and ‘94) were all won by the United States. In 1998, the US qualified for the World Cup automatically as hosts and therefore did not participate, allowing a new champion for the first time and it was Canada who took the honours. Canada had always been the highest placed CONCACAF team previously too, with 2 runners up medals and a 3rd placed finish in ‘93 when New Zealand were runners up as invited guests from outside of the federation.
In 2000 the tournament became the Gold Cup and was won by the US, as well as 2 more victories for them in 2002 and 2006.
FOR SOCCERLENS: AFC (Asian Football Confederation)
For an overview of all 6 federations of FIFA click here. Here we take an in depth look at:
AFC
History
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) governs the footballing community of Asia and also now includes Australia, but it doesn’t include a number of Asian (or part-Asian) countries, who are part of UEFA. The headquarters are located in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.
The AFC was formed in 1954 (believe it or not on the sidelines of a game), by Afghanistan, Burma, Republic of China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea Republic, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore & Vietnam. Six weeks later the AFC was sanctioned by FIFA and welcomed on to its committee.
Unlike UEFA though, the president is not a former footballer, but a man who is now combining a successful background in business with a passion for football. Mohamed bin Hammam is Qatari and he earned the position of AFC President after having a huge impact on football in Qatar.
There is no shortage of potential players in the AFC’s geographical region; the member nations making up more than half the population of the entire world! Just China and India’s populations combined total more than 2.5 billion people.
Due to it’s size and geograpical spread, the confederation is split up into 4 sub-sections; East, West, South & Central and ASEAN.
- The East zone covers the area containing countries such as China and Japan
- the West is nestled in by South-East Europe and North-East Africa, featuring Palestine, Saudi Arabia etc
- the South & Central is the area mainly south of Kazakhstan, such as India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka
- the ASEAN zone is the countries / islands between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, such as Australia, Thailand and the Philippines
Asain football’s first moment of internatonal pride came in 1912, when Philippine born Paulino Alcantara joined Barcelona and went on to have an unbelievable scoring record of 374 goals from 375 games. He is best remembered for a strike so fierce it made a hole in the net, in an international game against France.
The AFC’s first representative in the FIFA World Cup was Indonesia, in the 3rd event in 1938. Finally in 2002, after almost 50 years of hard work and progress by the AFC, it hosted the FIFA World Cup, in Korea and Japan.
Vision Asia
Vision Asia is a unique innovation to help improve the standards of football in Asia. The scheme aims mainly at the nations that fall short of the higher standards and plans to improve football on the pitch, in the admistration area and in the development of sports science. The initiaitive is the brainchild of AFC president Mohamed Bin Hammam, proving his long term commitment to the improvement of Asian football, with his ultimate goal being to see an Asian club win the FIFA World Cup.
Competitions
Nations:
The AFC runs a four-yearly federation wide competition for the nations, called the Asian Cup, which takes place the year after the FIFA World Cup, giving Asain nations (who reach the finals) 2 years running with a summer tournament and then 2 years off. It began in 1956, with Korea Republic being the first ever winners, as well as being the hosts and champions four years later too. Israel were 2nd place in both of these tournaments (which was a league rather than a cup format back then) and they hosted and won the third one in 1964.
Then came Iran’s turn to conquer, winning the next 3 tournaments (2 of which they hosted). Kuwait won the next one, and then Saudi Arabia and Japan hogged the limelight, winning 3 each of the next 6 tournaments. Finally bringing is up to date, with Iraq winning the tournament in 2007, the first one in the new spot of the year after the World Cup, formally being on the inbetween year, like UEFA’s comparative equivalent; the European Championships.
They also run a competition, designed to help the lesser nations taste some success, called the AFC Challenge Cup. This is a relatively new tournament that takes place every two years, the first of which was in 2006 and was won by Tajikistan, a small country to the north of Afghanistan, which used to be part of the Soviet Union. India hosted and won the tournament in 2008 and are again the hosts in 2010.
Clubs:
For the clubs of the AFC, the primary competition is the AFC Champions League and the secondary tournament is the AFC Cup.
After seeing the success of UEFA’s Champions League, the AFC reciprocated with their own version. The competition is in a similar format, with qualification via national leagues and then a few qualifying rounds to weed it out for the competition proper. The remaining 32 teams go into the group stage, which halves the numbers and then becomes a knockout cup. The winner walks home with not just a Blankety Blank cheque book and pen, but also a nice kitty of $1.5m plus travel subsidies and prize monies collected en route to the final.
The prestigious Champions League began in 2002, having previously been the Asian Club Championship since 1985. They also ran a similar competition for 5 seasons from 1967 but interest waned severely and it was discontinued.
The AFC Cup is the secondary tournament for AFC clubs and is part of Vision Asia’s scheme to help the ‘developing nations’ to improve their standards of football and to help bridge the gaps that exist. The whole concept of competitions like the Champions Leagues are serving to make the big clubs bigger, so this kind of initiative is both good for football and a refreshing change from much of the rest of the world.
Women’s football
The AFC has a women’s leg, which runs a two yearly championship (on World Cup year and the middle year in between), but large parts of central, southern and western Asia do not have participating women’s teams because of cultural and religious reasons.
The women’s confederation began in 1968 as the Asian Ladies Football Confederation, but in 1986 it became an official part of the AFC. In 1975 they began their AFC Women’s Asian Cup (though it was known as the AFC Women’s Championship at the time) and China have been the most successful nation in the competition, winning 7 titles in a row from 1986 to 1999 and in 2006.
FOR SOCCERLENS: CONMEBOL (Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol)
For an overview of all 6 federations of FIFA click here. Here we take an in depth look at:
CONMEBOL
Background
CONMEBOL is the South American Football Confederation (officially known as the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol) which covers the majority of the continent of South America. It is the oldest of FIFA’s confederations, originally forming in 1916, almost a century ago. The federation’s formation was begun by Héctor Rivadavia Gómez who had a grand plan for a federation for South American football. His idea was put to a committee including Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay and was greeted unanimously with approval. The date marked 100 years of Argnentinian independence and now also the formation of what would go on to become known as CONMEBOL.
Despite being the grandfather of the federations, CONMEBOL has the least member associations with just 10; Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. But even with just 10 members, CONMEBOL is not a small federation geographically, including 2 of the 10 largest nations in the world (Brazil 5th and Argentina 8th).
Whilst UEFA rules the roost club-wise, CONMEBOL are the record holders for international football. They are the only federation to have won the FIFA World Cup outside their own continent, having won it at least once in every continent it’s been held. This is primarily down to Brazil (5 World Cup wins), but Argentina and Uruguay both have got 2 World Cup wins each under their belts. This record is on the line at World Cup 2010 as it is the first one to take place in the continent of Africa.
The headquarters are in Luque, near Asunción, the capital of Paraguay and the current president, Nicolás Léoz, has headed the organisation since 1986. Léoz made his name as a businessman and history teacher as well as presiding over a number of football and basketball organisations, before becoming part of CONMEBOL.
Competitions
Nations:
The national sides of CONMEBOL compete in the Copa América, the oldest international football competition in existence. The 10 members are joined by 2 invited teams, to date these have been USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Japan and Honduras. The competition is primarily dominated by Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, winning 36 of the 42 tournaments between them.
The competition began in 1916, organised by Argentina as part of the celebrations of 100 years of Argentinian independence, and it was during this competition that the original meetings to create CONMEBOL took place. Just 4 nations took part in the first edition (Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay), with Uruguay winning the round robin tournament, and both Chile and Brazil failed to win a single game.
Between then and 1967 the competition was slightly sporadic, with 29 editions taking place and a round robin format being used. As the tournament grew, more nations began to take part, making it necessary to have qualification rounds. The tournament then took a hiatus till 1975 when it returned as a ‘group stage then knockout’ format and took place every 4 years until 1987 when it became every 2 years. In 2001 it went to every 3 years and then in 2007 it changed yet again to a 4 year gap.
The ‘invited teams’ system began in 1993 to make it into a 12 team tournament. To date, no invited team has won the competition, though Mexico have twice reached the final. Brazil have won 4 of the last 5 tournaments, doubling their tally of titles.
Clubs:
At club level, CONMEBOL’s top competition is the Copa Libertadores, which is an annual cup that sees the best teams in CONMEBOL’s leagues (plus Mexican teams are invited) compete in a group-stage-and-then-knockout-rounds style competition.
The competition began in 1960 and has taken place every year since without exception. Qualification to the competition is via winning the respective domestic league and also teams down to 5th placed in the strongest leagues such as Argentina and Brazil.
The first tournament featured just 7 teams, national champions from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, and Uruguay, but now it has grown to feature 38 teams, which includes 3 teams invited from Mexico. To date, the competition has not been won by any of the invited teams and is mainly dominated by teams from Argentina and Brazil.
For 10 years it was sponsored by motor company Toyota and is now sponsored by the global bank Santander.
A secondary competition began in 2002 which also takes place annually; the Copa Sudamericana. This tournament includes teams from CONMEBOL and recently also from CONCACAF.
In 1992, CONMEBOL began to run the secondary cup competition, alongside the Copa Libertadores, calling it the Copa CONMEBOL. This cup ran for 8 seasons and was only won by Brazilian and Argentinian teams. Overlapping this in the last year were 2 competitions; the Copa Merconorte and the Copa Mercosur.
The Copa Merconorte featured teams from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, as well as United States, Costa Rica and Mexico. The 4 instances were thoroughly dominated by Colombian teams, with all 4 won by them and 3 of the 4 losing finalists also being Colombian.
The Copa Mercosur featured teams from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Chile and was dominated by Brazilian teams with 3 Brazilian winners and 4 Brazilian runners-up.
The current incarnation as Copa Sudamericana then came into existence and since the first edition in 2002 it has seen more Argentinian finalists than any other nation but has also seen teams from Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Colombia in the final during it’s 7 editions. The design of the competition means that there is a team from either Argentina or Brazil in every game of the second round, which has encouraged much criticism and attacks of it being manufactured purely to reap TV revenues. Further discredits to the competition have come from so many teams fielding weakened teams for this competition.
Women’s football
CONMEBOL run a competition for the women’s national sides called Sudamericano Femenino, taking place a little sporadically but roughly every 3-4 years. It began in 1991 and a Brazillian dominance is evident, having won 4 of the 5 titles and being runners up in the other one. The current format is 2 groups of 5 from which the top 2 in each qualify for a final group of 4. All single fixture ties, held at neutral venues in the host nation.
FOR SOCCERLENS: UEFA (Union of European Football Associations)
For an overview of all 6 federations of FIFA click here. Here we take an in depth look at:
UEFA
UEFA is the governing body of European football and is by far the most lucrative and most watched of all the 6 confederations of FIFA. UEFA’s influence over the world of football is unprecedented and in the last 20 years its success has magnified beyond all expectations. The UEFA Champions League is universally regarded to be the ultimate competition in club football and generates money of unimaginable proportions.
UEFA has some of the most successful national sides in the world including 4 World Cup Winners; Italy (4), Germany (3 – all as West Germany), England (1) and France (1). Owing to the success of the national teams in Europe, UEFA has the most entrants into the FIFA World Cup finals;
- during the years when the finals included 16 nations, EUFA had between 8 and 12 entrants (between half and three-quarters)
- the 4 instances with 24 nations saw EUFA get between 12 and 13 entrants (at least half)
- and now the competition has 32 teams in the finals, between 13 and 14 of them have been from UEFA (13 for the forthcoming South Africa 2010).
The proportion of European teams has been reduced to help the growth of football around the world, but UEFA still gets more than double the amount of entrants than any other federation.
History
In Basle, Switzerland, back in the summer of 1954 (when most of us were barely even twinkles in our dad’s eyes), the football associations of Belgium, France and Italy formed the Union des Associations Européennes de Football and set up headquarters in Paris, France. Five years later, the headquarters moved to Bern, Switzerland and then in 1995 it moved to it’s current location of Nyon, Switzerland.
Plans had been formulating for a few years to form the European footballing body, with Italian FA head, Dr Ottorino Barassi, pushing the idea forward. In 1953 FIFA decided that they wanted continental football confederations to help with the running of world football, each focussing on the nations and FA’s in their continent. Little did anyone know at the time, just how successful UEFA would go on to be.
In English it is known as the Union of European Football Associations and it is headed by French goalscoring legend Michel Platini.
UEFA contains a number of nations that would be expected to be in the Asian federation, such as Turkey, Kazakhstan, Russia and Israel, but choose to ply their trade in UEFA for religious, political and financial reasons.
Competitions
Nations:
UEFA’s national tournament is the European Championships, which take place every four years on the middle year between FIFA World Cups. The tournament began in 1960, being called the European Nations Cup for the first 2 instances and for the first 20 years the finals just involved 4 teams. It then doubled in 1980 to 8 teams and from the ‘96 competition doubled again to 16. Plans are in place to increase it to 24 teams from 2016.
The most successful team in the competition with 3 wins is Germany, 2 of which came as West Germany.
Clubs:
The club teams of UEFA can qualify for one of two main competitions, the elite of which is the UEFA Champions League. The secondary cup is currently known as the UEFA Cup, but from the 2009/10 season, it will become the Europa League, as part of a rebranding and re-organising bid to increase its profile.
The UEFA Champions League is commercially the largest club competition in the world and the television rights for it are sold for millions all over the globe. Matches are broadcast on over 110 channels worldwide, in over 80 countries, a large amount of which are not in Europe, so the scope of the competition is astounding.
All this glory was never even dreamt of when the competition was originally formed and, believe it or not, it is the brainchild of a French newspaper! The competition was planned as a floodlit Wednesday night affair, a tradition which has largely stuck, but was not originally just for nation’s champions, instead being invite only, based on commercial pull and fan support.
Originally known as the European Cup (well, European Champion Clubs’ Cup officially) from its inception back in 1955, it changed to its current format in 1992. The competition’s popularity has magnified since the redevelopment and the teams compete to win not just the trophy but also the huge sums of money that are available. The winning team can net over £50m in prize money and can double that figure with television and sponsorship deals. The amounts of money in total generated by the competition are utterly obscene and has heavily conributed to the madness we now see in the world of football, such as Man City’s infamous Kaka bid.
The Champions League runs annually from July through May and from next season on will have some changes to the format, mostly to allow the champions of the lesser nations better access to the group stages, and also the final will now take place on a Saturday evening instead of a Wednesday.
The most successful club in the history of the competition is Real Madrid, with 9 titles (including the first 5 years of the competition), followed by AC Milan with 7 and Liverpool with 5. Aston Villa won the competition in 1982. Since becoming the Champions League, the most successful teams in the competition are the same; Real Madrid and AC Milan (3 wins each).
The secondary competition for European club sides is the UEFA Cup, which will become the Europa League from next season. The competition will change fairly significantly in a bid to promote it further, the group stage changing from it’s present format where teams only play each other once, to a home and away tie, with groups of 4 instead of 5.
Originally the final was a two-legged affair, the first ever final taking place in the very unglamourous location of Wolverhampton. The tournament recovered from these unfortunate beginnings to become a well respected and competed competition from 1972 to 2009.
FOR SOCCERLENS: FIFA (International Federation of Association Football)
For an overview of all 6 federations of FIFA click here. This post concentrates on:
FIFA
History
The first thing you’ll notice about FIFA is that the name should be IFAF. Well fear not, the governing body of world football isn’t dyslexic, it’s just that the name in the title is the English translation, it’s proper name is Federation Internationale de Football Association. The name’s origin came over a century ago at FIFA’s very beginnings in Paris, way back in the summer of 1904, when the world was still black and white and the internet was a long way from being invented (apparently there once was a time when people got through life without relying on the world wide web!).
International football was still in it’s infancy at the time, but the need for a governing body had become apparent. The huge global success it is today was still a long time coming though, with wars being one of the large contributing factors hindering its growth.
FIFA’s original members were the nations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, who together agreed on a charter of rules for the new official body to uphold. By the time of the first World War, these member nations had been joined by Argentina, Austria, Canada, Chile, England, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, USA and Wales.
Through its years the Presidents of FIFA have mainly been Europeans, the only exception being Joao Havelange, a Brazilian who preceded current man, Sepp Blatter. Three Britons have held the job and 2 Frenchmen, the most well known of which is Jules Rimet, whose name adorns the old trophy.
Competitions
FIFA organise the daddy of all competitions, the biggest sports event in the world, de-de-de de-de-de derrrr; The World Cup. The four yearly competiton pits pretty much every nation on the planet against one another in a tournament to find the world’s greatest footballing country.
The first ever World Cup took place in Uruguay in 1930, after 3 decades in the making and a number of ‘dress rehearsals’ in the form of the football competition at the Olympics since 1908. A number of nations were keen to be the host of the much awaited new competition, but Uruguay won over the FIFA decision makers, not just with the fact that the country would be celebrating 100 years of independence but also with their generous offer to pay all the costs of the organisation as well as the travel expenses of all the participants.
An economic crisis in Europe saw Jules Rimet have to make last minute changes to the format as only 4 nations could be talked into making the trip to South America. Despite hiccups, the tournament was a roaring success and the FIFA World Cup was born. It’s popularity was already growing at the time, but even better times were ahead.
Since 1950, the World Cup has taken place uninterrupted every four years and has been televised since 1954, seeing the popularity grow massively. The tournament is now the biggest sporting competition in the world, both commercially and viewer-wise. The last World Cup totalled over 25 billion viewers, cumulatively over all the matches, with more than 10% of the population of the entire world watching the final. Bearing in mind that this match only involved 2 countries and how much of the world doesn’t have easy access to television, these figures demonstrate the amazing popularity of FIFA’s competition.
The qualifying rounds begin almost 3 years prior to the finals in some of the federations and last for around 18 months. Each federation has its own format and timelines for qualification but generally the games take place on the same designated weeks, in order for players who compete in foreign leagues in their club football, to be available to play. The qualifying rounds are designed to determine the 32 best teams in the world to compete on the main stage of the World Cup Finals.
The finals last for a month with a game everyday until the quarter finals, keeping the excitement of the competition pretty constant for the entire duration. At the finals, nations compete first in a league format, playing each other once. Then the top 2 teams in every group compete in a round of 16, at which point the competition becomes a one-game knockout, leading to the prestigious final.
FIFA World Rankings
There are currently 207 member associatons of FIFA, who are ranked by a system of points awarded on the results of games played (click here for the current rankings). The system is much criticised due to the regular surprises in the rankings table, which led FIFA to reconsider the system used to calculate the points in 2005 (click here for current system, NB it’s very complicated, so there’s a briefer version here). The current system is first based on win (3 points, or 2 for win by penalties), lose (0, or 1 for loss by penalties) or draw (1) and then the points are multiplied by 5 factors to ensure that, for example, a World Cup win against Brazil nets you more points than a friendly win against San Marino.
The factors are;
- Importance of match (eg World Cup games are worth 4 times more than a friendly)
- Strength of opponent (the FIFA ranking of the opponent is taken into account)
- Regional strength (eg a win against a UEFA team is worth more than a win against an OFC team)
- Period (a win last week is worth more than a win 3 years ago)
- Number of matches played in last 12 months
The dominating federation in the FIFA rankings is without doubt UEFA, with 8 of the top 10 teams being members of the European body. You could argue that the Europe weighting in the points system makes it biased towards this happening as most of the time countries will be playing against their own federation.
FOR SOCCERLENS: Football federations around the globe – A look at the world of football
The world of football is made up of 6 main football federations; UEFA, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, AFC, CAF & OFC. These governing bodies look after different areas of world football, roughly along the lines of the geographical continents of the world.
Each federation runs its own competition for both its national sides and its clubs, as well as entering its national sides into the FIFA World Cup and its club competition winners into the FIFA World Club Championship, the two competitions to determine the best national and club team, respectively, in the world.
Each federation also organises the media coverage of their events, for which it receives monies and from which it awards prize money. They also regulate and discipline the organisations (leagues etc) within their legislation, following the guidelines set down by the big-boss-man; FIFA.
UEFA
Background
UEFA is the governing body of European football and is by far the most lucrative and most watched of all the confederations. The UEFA Champions League is considered by many players and viewers to be the ultimate competition in club football, as is shown by the majority of players who compete in the latter stages of the World Cup, playing their club football in Europe. Other than Brazil and Argentina, the majority of the world’s most successful national sides are in UEFA and it has the most entrants into the FIFA World Cup, which is currently 14.
The richest clubs in the world are mainly in the English Premier League, followed by Italy’s Serie A and Spain’s La Liga. These leagues offer the highest wages for players and, as a result, attract the biggest stars of the world game. Unsurprisingly, football agents are constantly trying to push for deals with teams in these leagues (not that football agents are all money-grabbers or anything!).
UEFA stands for the Union of European Football Associations and is headed by French goalscoring legend Michel Platini. It was formed in France over half a decade ago and is this year spending it’s 50th year headquarted in Switzerland.
UEFA contains a number of nations that would be expected to be in the Asian federation, such as Turkey, Kazakhstan, Russia and Israel, but choose to ply their trade in UEFA for religious, political and financial reasons.
Competitions
UEFA’s national tournament is the European Championships, which take place every four years on the middle year between FIFA World Cups. The tournament began in 1960, being called the European Nations Cup for the first 2 instances and for the first 20 years the finals just involved 4 teams. It then doubled in 1980 to 8 teams and from the ‘96 competition doubled again to 16. Plans are in place to increase it to 24 teams from 2016. The most successful team in the competition with 3 wins is Germany, 2 of which came as West Germany.
The club teams of UEFA can qualify for one of two main competitions, the elite of which is the UEFA Champions League. The secondary cup is currently known as the UEFA Cup, but from next year will become the Europa League, as part of a rebranding and re-organising bid to increase its profile.
The UEFA Champions League is commercially the largest club competition in the world and the television rights for it are sold for millions all over the globe. Matches are broadcast on over 110 channels worldwide, in over 80 countries, a large amount of which are not in Europe, so the scope of the competition is astounding.
Originally known as the European Cup (well, European Champion Clubs’ Cup officially) from its inception back in 1955, it changed to its current format in 1992. The competition’s popularity has magnified since the redevelopment and the teams compete to win not just the trophy but also the huge sums of money that are available. The winning team can net over €50m in prize money and can double that figure with television and sponsorship deals. The amounts of money in total generated by the competition are utterly obscene and has heavily conributed to the madness we now see in the world of football, such as Man City’s infamous Kaka bid.
The Champions League runs annually from July through May and from next season on will have some changes to the format, mostly to allow the champions of the lesser nations better access to the group stages, and also the final will now take place on a Saturday evening instead of a Wednesday.
The most successfu club in the history of the competition is Real Madrid, with 9 titles, followed by AC Milan with 7 and Liverpool with 5. Aston Villa won the competition in 1982.
The secondary competition for European club sides is the UEFA Cup, which will become the Europa League from next season. The competition will change fairly significantly in a bid to promote it further, the group stage changing from it’s present format where teams only play each other once, to a home and away tie, with groups of 4 instead of 5.
Originally the final was a two-legged affair, the first ever final taking place in the very unglamourous location of Wolverhampton.
Women’s football
For the girls, UEFA runs the European Women’s Championship for the national sides, the next of which will be this summer in Finland and for the club sides there is the UEFA Women’s Cup which is annual.
CAF
Background
The Confederation of African Football (or Confédération Africaine de Football as it’s known to it’s mom) covers the giant continent of Africa and is the federation that follows it’s geographical continent the closest. It has the most member nations, even more so than UEFA, and the only place in Africa omitted is the territory of Western Sahara, on the northern section of the West Coast.
Over history, African nations have struggled to compete in world football, due to economic difficulties in large parts of the continent, but recent success stories such as Adebayor, Eto’o, Drogba, Essien and (who can forget) Roger Milla, prove that the talent is not lacking there.
The CAF is over 50 years old and sweats it’s tits off in the scorching heat of Cairo, where it calls home. The president is a fella called Issa Hayatou, who actually plied his sporting trade as a runner and basketballer. Seven years ago he competed against Sepp Blatter in the election for president of FIFA and Blatter’s win attracted a lot of scepticism, from Hayatou fans and others wary of Blatter and his ways.
Competitions
Club-wise, the CAF run a competition very similar to the UEFA Champions League, called the CAF Champions League, which operates as a knockout cup, then a group stage, then back to knockout for the final stages. The clubs aim to win the main prize pot of $1m and during it’s 44 years, Egypt has been the most dominant nation in the competition, particularly Al-Ahly and El Zamalek.
The secondary club competition is the CAF Confederation Cup, which began in 1975 as the African Cup Winners’ Cup.
Nation-wise, the CAF organises the African Cup of Nations, which takes place every 2 years in January and February. Due to pressure from European clubs, the competition is being forced to change to the summer and will also have to switch the year it runs in order to not clash with the FIFA World Cup. The CAF are not happy with these enforced changes, mainly because the majority of Africa does not have suitable weather conditions in June and July for playing football, so it will seriously reduce the amount of host locations. Much like the Champions League, Egypt are the most successful nation in the competition.
Women’s football
The CAF Women’s Championship takes place every 2 years, beginning in 1991 and has been won by Nigeria 7 out of its 8 times.
AFC
Background
The AFC governs the footballing community of Asia and also now includes Australia, but it doesn’t include a number of Asian (or part-Asian) countries, who are part of UEFA. The AFC is headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.
Like it’s European cousin, the AFC was formed in 1954, so is this year in it’s 55th year. Unlike UEFA though, the president is not a former footballer, but a man who is now combining a successful background in business with a passion for football.
Competitions
The AFC runs a four-yearly federation wide competition for the nations called the Asian Cup, which takes place the year after the FIFA World Cup.
They also run a competition, designed to help the lesser nations taste some success, called the AFC Challenge Cup. This is a relatively new tournament that takes place every two years, the first of which was in 2006 and the next of which will be just a few months before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
For the clubs of the AFC, the primary competition is the AFC Champions League and the secondary tournament is the AFC Cup.
Women’s football
The AFC has a women’s leg, which runs a two yearly championship (on World Cup year and the middle year in between), but large parts of central, southern and western Asia do not have participating women’s teams because of cultural and religious reasons.
CONCACAF
Background
CONCACAF stands for (take a deep breath) the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football and is the body that governs the national and club football of North and Central America, the Caribbean islands and also includes Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, from South America.
There are 40 member nations of CONCACAF, though around 90% of the geographical area is taken up by just two nations (USA and Canada),
Competitions
The nations of CONCACAF compete in the Gold Cup, a two-yearly competition and the most successful team in it’s history is Mexico but in the last 20 years the USA have seen a large amount of success, finishing in the top 3 in 9 out of 10 competitions.
For the clubs there is only one competition; the CONCACAF Champions League. Up until 2008 it was known as the Champions Cup but is now looking to boost its profile with a rebranding, particularly with soccer’s growing popularity in the United States.
Women’s football
The CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup is two-yearly and has been won every time by USA (except in ‘98 when they didn’t participate) since it’s inception in 1991.
CONMEBOL
Background
CONMEBOL is the South American Football Confederation (officially known as the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol) which covers the majority of the continent of South America. It is the oldest of FIFA’s confederations, originally forming in 1916, almost a century ago.
Despite being the grandfather of the federations, CONMEBOL is the smallest one with just 10 member nations, but it can be argued that Brazil are so good that they count as 10 nations.
Whilst UEFA rules the roost club-wise, CONMEBOL are the record holders for international football. They are the only federation to have won the FIFA World Cup outside their own continent, having won it at least once in every continent it’s been held. This is primarily down to Brazil and Argentina (7 World Cup wins between them), but Uruguay have also got 2 World Cup wins under their belts.
The headquarters are in Luque, near Asunción, the capital of Paraguay and the current president, Nicolás Léoz, has headed the organisation since 1986. Léoz made his name as a businessman before becoming part of CONMEBOL and has recently turned 80.
Competitions
The national sides of CONMEBOL compete in the Copa América, the oldest international football competition in existence. The 10 members are joined by 2 invited teams, to date these have been USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Japan and Honduras. The competition is primarily dominated by Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, winning 36 of the 42 tournaments between them.
At club level, CONMEBOL’s top competition is the Copa Libertadores, which is an annual cup that sees the best teams in CONMEBOL’s league’s (plus Mexican teams are invited) compete in a group-stage-and-then-knockout-rounds style competition.
A secondary competition began in 2002 which also takes place annually; the Copa Sudamericana. This tournament includes teams from CONMEBOL and recently also CONCACAF. The Copa Sudamericana has a little less dominance from Brazil and Argentina, with teams from Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, Columbia and Chile all having reached the final.
Women’s football
CONMEBOL run a competition for the women’s national sides, taking place a little sporadically but roughly every 3-4 years. It began in 1991 and a Brazillian dominance is evident, having won 4 of the 5 titles and being runners up in the other one.
OFC
Background
Formed in 1966, the Oceania Football Confederation is the federation for the pacific islands located around Australia, though since 2006 it no longer contains the Aussies. Without them, the OFC is positively miniscule by comparison with the other federations.
There are 17 member nations in the OFC, largely made up of very small pacific islands where football isn’t the main sport. Australia as a country is around 10 times bigger than every other OFC nation put together, so they unsurprisingly dominated the federation and this led them to move to the AFC, in order to seek bigger challenges and to ‘give the others a chance’.
Competitions
The OFC Nations Cup is the national competition in Oceania and has taken place 8 times with just 2 winners; New Zealand and Australia winning 4 each. Since ‘96 it has been a two-yearly competition, taking place at various times in the year ranging from May to November.
The OFC Champions League has also only been won by Australian and New Zealand sides. It is a much lower profile competition than many other versions of the Champions League around the world.
Women’s football
Much like in the men’s competitions, the OFC Women’s Championship is dominated by New Zealand and Australia, but has been won twice by Chinese Taipei (Taiwan).
Quick reference guide and links to official sites
Federation - Geographic area – Member nations – Founded – National competition – Main club competition – Secondary club competition
AFC – Asia – 46 – 1954 – Asian Cup - Champions League – AFC Cup
CAF – Africa – 55 – 1957 – Africa Cup Of Nations - Champions League – Confederation Cup
CONCACAF – North & Central America – 40 – 1961 – Gold Cup - Champions League – Champions’ Cup
CONMEBOL – South America – 10 – 1916 – Copa América – Copa Libertadores - Copa Sudamericana
OFC – Oceania – 17 – 1966 – Nations Cup – Champions League – N/A
UEFA – Europe – 53 – 1954 – European Championship – Champions League – UEFA Cup
Member nation lists
AFC:
Afghanistan
Australia
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Brunei
Cambodia
China PR
Chinese Taipei
Guam
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Japan
Jordan
Korea DPR
Korea Republic
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Lebanon
Macau
Malaysia
Maldives
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nepal
Oman
Pakistan
Palestine
Philippines
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Syria
Tajikistan
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Turkmenistan
United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Yemen
CAF:
Algeria
Angola
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Côte d’Ivoire
Congo
Congo DR
Djibouti
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gabon
Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Mauritius
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Réunion
Rwanda
São Tomé and Príncipe
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
Sudan
Swaziland
Tanzania
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda
Zambia
Zanzibar
Zimbabwe
CONCACAF:
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Aruba
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Bermuda
British Virgin Islands
Canada
Cayman Islands
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominica
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
French Guiana
Grenada
Guadeloupe
Guatemala
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Jamaica
Martinique
Mexico
Montserrat
Netherlands Antilles
Nicaragua
Panama
Puerto Rico
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint-Martin
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Sint Maarten
Suriname
Trinidad and Tobago
Turks and Caicos Islands
United States of America
U.S. Virgin Islands
CONMEBOL:
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Paraguay
Peru
Uruguay
Venezuela
OFC:
American Samoa
Cook Islands
Fiji
Kiribati
Federated States of Micronesia
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Niue
Northern Mariana Islands
Palau
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tahiti
Tonga
Tuvalu
Vanuatu
UEFA:
Albania
Andorra
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
England
Estonia
Faroe Islands
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Republic of Ireland
Israel
Italy
Kazakhstan
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
FYR Macedonia
Malta
Moldova
Montenegro
Netherlands
Northern Ireland
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
San Marino
Scotland
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Ukraine
Wales
Martin Banks is an Aston Villa fan who usually writes about Aston Villa for Aston Villa Blog, which is a blog about Aston Villa 
FOR SOCCERLENS: The fun guide to free online betting
When it comes to betting, two of the great things about winning are…
- You win some money
- You don’t lose any money
Well how does it grab you to have the second one guaranteed? Then look no further because here’s a free guide to free betting online. It doesn’t get much better than free guides to free stuff, so I’m sure I’ve got your attention now.
What are they all about then? What’s the catch? Will I end up with more money or less? Read on and find out…
Free bets are offered by almost all online bookies, as a way to get new customers. The deal usually involves you registering an account with a site, placing a bet of around £10-£25 and then they will add to that amount with their advertised deal. Further free wonga often becomes available when you have placed another 5 or 10 more bets. This money is only usable on their site though, so don’t start thinking I’m about to double your wages this month!
Free bet offers are a good way to try out a site without splashing out too much and the bookies love them because they get your contact details and then they can bombard you with mailouts and more enticing offers.
Who offers what
The internet is positively crawling with betting sites and almost all of them are willing to give you free money to play with on their site if you sign up and place a few bets.
One of the best offers you’ll find is on Paddy Power, where they will give you £20 if you bet £10. You will struggle to find a site that is willing to offer you twice the amount you put down, especially for a sum as small as £10. Paddy Power has all the usual football bets, plus the added fun of Novelty Bets, where you can bet on the next pop band to split up (Girls Aloud, after Cheryl finds Ashley Cole hanging out the back of Nadine?) and the next celebrity to get on the front page smacked up to their eyeballs (I’m putting a tenner on Amy Winehouse!).
Sporting Bet offer a bloody good deal, matching your first bet up to £25, and then giving you a further £75 if you place 10 more bets of at least £15. The minimum stake here is £175, so it’s not for the faint-hearted, but you’ll get a nice juicy £100 to splash around gratis, making this a great option if you want to dive in at the deep end.
New kids on the block, 888 Sport, offer you £50 worth of free bets, but you’re going to have to shell out at least £225 worth of bets to qualify for it. If you’re going to bet regularly and you like the site, then £50 in the kitty is better than a swift knee to the bollocks, but it’s not the best free-money money can buy.
At Bet 365, you can get £100 worth of free bets from a minimum spend of £400, but be well aware of the details as you could easily end up spending more than that and/or getting less free money to squander. Bet 365 has lots to explore on it’s site, including live streaming of many games and other sporting events.
Victor Chandler (VC Bet) offer you £50 if you bet £75 with them and also offer £25 for introducing a friend, so if you know plenty of gamblers then this site may be for you.
Free bet sites
There are even sites set up that are purely based on free bet offers that online bookies are running. Some of the best are Free Bet Offers, Free Bets and Big Free Bet, where you can quickly look through the offers that are available. All 3 of these sites are well worth a goosy-gander, the pick of the bunch being Free Bet Offers, for it’s competent detail whilst still keeping it simplistic enough for beginners.
How to get the most out of the free bets
There is a guaranteed method to make money out of these offers and it’s known by the betting community as ‘matched betting’. Traditionalist gamblers frown on this kind of activity, so don’t go telling your grandad or he’ll clip you round the earhole and tell you it wasn’t like that in his day, that in his day gamblers were honest and you had players like Stanley Matthews who played to the age of 79 and only earnt tuppence a week and never cried like a spoiled child when they were tackled, not like this namby-pamby Ronaldo you have now, rolling round like he’s been shot whenever a strong gust of wind blows in and messes his hair up. And no-one wants to hear that rant, so don’t tell your grandad, OK?
Matched betting involves putting a bet on with your free offer and then also putting a lay bet on it on another site. It’s fairly complicated, depending on the offer, but it is a guranteed way to make a profit from your free offers. Here’s a pretty good page with the details of how to pull off this legal skank, have a read, you’ll be on MTV Cribs in no time!
If matched betting is not for you, lots of fun can still be had with your free bets just by simply placing bets and watching the match. The old fashioned way is how to have the most fun, because when a team turns it round in the last seconds of a match and you are suddenly richer than you were 2 hours ago, you won’t even mind that it’s your round!
Always read the label
A word of warning; make sure you read the boring small print thoroughly because a lot of the time they are not quite the way the sound and you have to lay down more money than you thought to get your free bets. Sometimes you will even find mistakes, for example Free Bets Here are currently advertising “FREE £100 BET WITH BETFRED!” but if you read the description below it is just for £50 and even worse, if you click the link it doesn’t take you to any such offer. This could be a simple error that they will fix when they realise, but it could also be a schiesty con where they are earning from your click-throughs.
You won’t find betting sites straight-out lying in their offers (they know they’d get their knackers chopped off by the authorities if they did), but they will word them to sound much more tempting than they really are, so just be vigilant.
Most of all though, go place some bets, earn free money and have some fun.
Martin Banks is an Aston Villa fan who usually writes about Aston Villa for Aston Villa Blog
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