Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that answer the question.
Query: How many countries are in FIFA?
FIFA was founded in 1904[3] to oversee international competition among the national associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, its membership now comprises 211 national associations. Member countries must each also be members of one of the six regional confederations into which the world is divided: Africa, Asia, Europe, North & Central America and the Caribbean, Oceania, and South America.
Reports by investigative journalists have linked FIFA leadership with corruption, bribery, and vote-rigging related to the election of FIFA president Sepp Blatter and the organization's decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively. These allegations led to the indictments of nine high-ranking FIFA officials and five corporate executives by the U.S. Department of Justice on charges including racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering. On 27 May 2015, several of these officials were arrested by Swiss authorities, who were launching a simultaneous but separate criminal investigation into how the organization awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Those among these officials who were also indicted in the U.S. are expected to be extradited to face charges there as well.[5][6][7] Many officials were suspended by FIFA's ethics committee including Sepp Blatter[8] and Michel Platini.[9] In early 2017 reports became public about FIFA president Gianni Infantino attempting to prevent the re-elections[10] of both chairmen of the ethics committee, Cornel Borbély and Hans-Joachim Eckert, during the FIFA congress in May 2017.[11][12] On May 9, 2017, following Infantino's proposal,[13] FIFA Council decided not to renew the mandates of Borbély and Eckert.[13] Together with the chairmen, 11 of 13 committee members were removed.[14]
The Vatican is one of only nine fully recognized sovereign states whose national team is not a FIFA member. The others are the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Monaco, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu, and the United Kingdom (though the UK's four "home countries" (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) have individual FIFA teams each of which is also a member of the IFAB). In May 2014, Domenico Ruggerio, president of the national football association, stated that "I prefer to be amateur...To join FIFA, at that level, will be like a business" after stating "The important message of friendship and love is demonstrated by the sport — the real sport, not the business that is in football these days...It is not just important to win a match; it is how you carry yourself." Therefore, that, he added, meant that "the ethos of the Vatican’s soccer team was, at odds with FIFA membership."
The Basque Country representative football team (officially, in Basque, 'Euskal selekzioa') represents the Basque Country in football. It selects players from the Basque Country autonomous community, Navarre and the French Basque Country and is organised by the Basque Football Federation. It is not affiliated with FIFA or UEFA and therefore only allowed to play friendly matches against FIFA or non-FIFA affiliated teams.
The seedings table uses these points obtained from the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the 2002 FIFA World Cup averaged in a 1:2 ratio respectively, added to the average amount of points derived from the World Rankings at three given dates (at ratio 1:1:1), December 2003, December 2004, and November 2005. This generates a view of how well the teams have performed over the last ten years (since the rankings in 2003 include results from eight years previous to that) with a specific focus on how the teams have performed in the FIFA World Cup on previous occasions. Significant differences between this ranking of the teams and the official FIFA rankings at the time of the draw can be seen for Czech Republic, Germany and South Korea (ρ=0.87).
There has been some controversy about several of FIFA’s sponsors. FIFA has been criticized for taking on McDonald's as a sponsor because many feel the chain’s unhealthy food should not be connected to a sporting event. Budweiser also has endured criticism for being the official beer of the World Cup in a country where, because it contains rice and fails the German Reinheitsgebot, it cannot be sold as a beer. Because of a longstanding copyright dispute with Czech brewery Budweiser Budvar it can also not be sold under the name of "Budweiser" in Germany. Anheuser-Busch signed its sponsorship deal with FIFA before the 2006 World Cup’s host country was chosen, and opted to advertise the brand as "Bud 百威", combining the first three letters of its English brand name with its Chinese brand name. Budweiser is the only sponsor with non English writing on its billboards.
Former Brazilian footballer Romário, now a political figure, criticised his country's handling of these preparations but said that "FIFA's requirements were excessive". Another former Brazilian player, Ronaldo, said he felt "embarrassed" about the state of the country's infrastructure and how "a series of investments were promised that won't be delivered - only 30% percent will be delivered".
This is a list of many lists of countries and territories by various definitions, including FIFA countries, federations, and fictional countries. A country or territory is a geographical area, either in the sense of "nation" (a cultural entity) or "state" (a political entity).The characteristics of the human population:
These are the bids from countries vying to host the 2023 FIFA's Women's World Cup. The official announcement for which one of these countries will host the Women's World Cup will not be made until 5 June 2019 at the FIFA Congress in Paris, France. As of January 2019, Australia, Colombia and South Africa are the official bidders and three countries (Japan, Thailand and New Zealand) have expressed interest in hosting the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.
"Our Field, Our Turf, Our Home, Our Fortress…Fatorda" that's how the Gaurs refer to the Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Margao, Goa, it is better known as the Fatorda. This stadium is considered to be one of the finest football stadiums in the country. This venue has long been a mainstay of Indian football, having played host to many international games, including India's qualifiers for both the FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup. It was also one of the six host venues for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup held in India. Massive attendances have been recorded at The Fatorda. The noise in a number of games, including the inaugural Hero ISL's semi-final encounter between FC Goa and ATK as well as the final against Chennaiyin FC the following year, was deafening.
FIFA member countries are invited annually to nominate male and female officials for association football, futsal and beach soccer. Each country's Referee's Committee selects the referees to be nominated to FIFA.
In 2010 Gould started to appear regularly on Al Jazeera English as a football expert to discuss a wide variety of football-related stories including the FIFA World Cup host country announcements for 2018 and 2022 and the many political controversies involving FIFA's Sepp Blatter. 
41 of the 54 active FIFA and CAF members have never qualified for the final tournament.This table shows for each world cup the number of countries at the World Cup, the number of entries (#E) from around the world (including any rejections and withdrawals), the number of African entries (#A), how many of those African entries withdrew (#A-) before/during qualification or were rejected by FIFA, the African representatives at the World Cup finals, the number of World Cup Qualifiers each African representative had to play to get to the World Cup (#WCQ), the furthest stage they reached, their results, and their coaches.
As the governing body of association football, FIFA is responsible for maintaining and implementing the rules that determine whether an association football player is eligible to represent a particular country in officially recognised international competitions and friendly matches. In the 20th century, FIFA allowed a player to represent any national team, as long as the player held citizenship of that country. In 2004, in reaction to the growing trend towards naturalisation of foreign players in some countries, FIFA implemented a significant new ruling that requires a player to demonstrate a "clear connection" to any country they wish to represent. FIFA has used its authority to overturn results of competitive international matches that feature ineligible players.
Lahm is involved in many charity campaigns and events. In June 2007, FIFA announced that Lahm and Owen Hargreaves would visit South Africa in advance to support the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Although Hargreaves never managed to take part in the trip due to injury, Lahm and German national teammate Piotr Trochowski visited the country taking time not only to visit the 2010 FIFA World Cup organizers but also to visit a local SOS Children's Village and to take part in the Kick-AIDS event.
FIFA assigns a three-letter country code (more properly termed a trigramme or trigram) to each of its member and non-member countries. These are the official codes used by FIFA and its continental confederations (AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, OFC and UEFA) as name abbreviations of countries and dependent areas, in official competitions.
In May 1937, the team began to have problems with FIFA. Due to the civil war in Spain FIFA had banned all FIFA-affiliated countries and clubs from playing any Spanish teams. A match due to take place on 30 May in the Netherlands against Rotterdam was cancelled by the Dutch Federation. But many clubs and national sides continued to play the Basque team because they sympathised with Republican Spain which the team symbolised. The team's first match against a nation from outside of Spain was a 3–2 defeat, also in May 1937, to Czechoslovakia, who had been runners up in the 1934 World cup. In June, they played Czechoslovakia again losing 2–1. Then they played Silesia in Chorzów on June 9.
The congress agenda was released on 5 May. 
Following the allegations of corruption Blatter announced changes to FIFA's internal processes. Future FIFA World Cups will be selected by the whole FIFA Congress rather than the FIFA Executive Committee, an internal committee will examine FIFA's corporate governance, and the FIFA Ethics Committee will be strengthened.
A motion bought by the United Arab Emirates Football Association to relax eligibility rules for foreign-born players was rejected by 153 to 42, with 11 abstentions. The motion argued that players 18 or older could switch countries after three years' residence instead of five. The president of the UAE football association Mohamed al-Rumaithi argued that the proposed change was good for countries trying to qualify for the FIFA World Cup. The motion was also supported by the UAE Football League and Srečko Katanec, the head coach of the United Arab Emirates national football team. The proposal was interpreted as a way for rich countries to attract foreign players with offers of citizenship.
Morocco did not mention that homosexuality is illegal in the country in its bid book. There was also no attempt how this would be mitigated (for LGBT athletes and fans) if the country was given the right to host the World Cup. FIFA's guidelines for World Cup hosts explicity mentioned that "host countries must guarantee there is no discrimination of any nature". Ahmed El Haij, president of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, told the Associated Press, "it is evident that if Morocco was to host the World Cup, LGBT people coming to watch the games will face a lot of discrimination. The state will not be able to protect them nor will it be able to commit in preventing measures that could be taken against them by both the state and society".
Corruption within FIFA builds up over the years from Havelange's expansion efforts. As president of FIFA, Blatter is tasked to clean this up, for which he is seen as a controversial president. Many FIFA officials attempt to vote him out of office because of how incorruptible he is. The movie ends with a 2006 vote, in which Blatter is able to retain his presidency by cowing the corrupt members of FIFA, threatening to expose their ill deeds if they do not endorse Blatter and his anti-corruption campaign by voting for him as the FIFA president.
For each World Cup, the number of countries in the finals (Size), the number of entries from around the world including any rejections and withdrawals (E), the number of South American entries (SA), how many of those South American entries withdrew before or during qualification or were rejected by FIFA (W), the South American representatives at the World Cup finals, the number of World Cup Qualifiers each South American representative had played to get to the finals (WCQ), the furthest stage they reached, their results, and their coaches.
Association football is administered by the Ghana Football Association and the national men's football team is known as the Black Stars, with the under-20 team known as the Black Satellites. Ghana has participated in many championships, including the African Cup of Nations with 4 titles, the FIFA World Cup three times, (2006, 2010, and 2014), and the FIFA U-20 World Cup with 1 title. In the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Ghana became the third African country to reach the quarter-final stage of the World Cup after Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002. Ghana national U-20 football team, known as the "Black Satellites", is considered to be the feeder team for the Ghana national football team. Ghana is the first and only country on the Africa continent to be crowned FIFA U-20 World Cup Champions and two-time runner up in 1993 and 2001. The Ghana national U-17 football team, known as the Black Starlets, are two-time FIFA U-17 World Cup champions in 1991 and 1995, two-time runners up in 1993 and 1997.
The host country is now chosen in a vote by FIFA's Council. This is done under an exhaustive ballot system. The national football association of a country desiring to host the event receives a "Hosting Agreement" from FIFA, which explains the steps and requirements that are expected from a strong bid. The bidding association also receives a form, the submission of which represents the official confirmation of the candidacy. After this, a FIFA designated group of inspectors visit the country to identify that the country meets the requirements needed to host the event and a report on the country is produced. The decision on who will host the World Cup is usually made six or seven years in advance of the tournament. However, there have been occasions where the hosts of multiple future tournaments were announced at the same time, as was the case for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, which were awarded to Russia and Qatar, with Qatar becoming the first Middle Eastern country to host the tournament.
The issue of how to allocate automatic host country qualification given that there are multiple host countries has not yet been resolved and will be decided by the FIFA council.
The United bid anticipated all three host countries being awarded automatic places.
In the 2002 World Cup, several other advantages were discovered when the host was split between Japan and Korea. This was the first time the tournament had been hosted in two countries, with thirty two matches being played in each country with a grand total of sixty four matches. With the three million live spectators ticket sales were 1.2 billion dollars. FIFA promised each country 110 million for hosting and all revenue from their ticket sales. 
Each country expanded their 20 soccer facilities with a total investment of 4.7 billion. A host country can also see value in the national exposure with so many people viewing and attending the event.