A newer edition of this regulation is available: May 2024

Football·International Regulations·FIFA

FIFA Statutes 2004

Superseded2004
In force from
2004/01/01
Download file

FIFA Statutes 2004 edition, adopted by the Extraordinary Congress in Doha on 19 October 2003 and in force from 1 January 2004; a structural rewrite with a standalone "Definitions" section.

Adoption19 October 2003 — FIFA Extraordinary Congress, Doha
In force from1 January 2004
Structure80 articles of the Statutes + Regulations Governing the Application of the Statutes + Standing Orders of the Congress
StatusRepealed — superseded by the 2006 edition

What are the FIFA Statutes?

The FIFA Statutes are the federation's foundational instrument: they determine FIFA's legal nature and seat, its objectives, the conditions of membership for national associations and their rights and obligations, the position of the confederations, the structure of its organs (the Congress, the Council, the General Secretary, the standing committees and the judicial bodies), and the dispute resolution mechanism, including referral to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The Regulations Governing the Application of the Statutes and the Standing Orders of the Congress are published within the same document.

About the 2004 editionChanges from the 2001 edition

Under the final article, the Statutes, the Regulations Governing the Application of the Statutes and the Standing Orders of the Congress were all adopted at the Extraordinary Congress in Doha on 19 October 2003 and came into force on 1 January 2004.

Principal changes from the previous edition

  1. Replacement of the "interpretation clause" with a standalone "Definitions" sectionThe interpretation clause at the opening of the 2001 edition was removed and a standalone section entitled "Definitions" was inserted at the beginning of the document, defining the key terms (FIFA, association, confederation, member, official, player and others).
  2. Rearrangement of the chapter structure of the StatutesThe structure was rearranged into numbered chapters, including chapters on arbitration, compliance with FIFA decisions, rights in competitions and events, and international matches and competitions.
  3. Separation of the "Referees and assistant referees" sectionThe provisions on referees and assistant referees were organised into a standalone section within the Regulations Governing the Application of the Statutes.

Who this document matters to

The Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran is bound to observe the principles of this document in framing its own statutes; independence from third-party interference, free and periodic elections, and the requirement to refer matters to the Court of Arbitration for Sport rather than to national courts all derive from it. For sports lawyers, the Statutes are also the basis for establishing the competence of FIFA's organs and the legitimacy of their decisions.