The International Football Association Board, or IFAB for short, is a major football body that implements and determines the international laws of football. This association was founded in 1886, with the purpose to act as the game’s guardian of football internationally used laws. The recognization of IFAB is in exchange to take high sportsmanship and conservative characters of football players. To clarify, IFAB is different from FIFA even though both of them represent well the football game.

The History of the International Football Association Board

During the early 1800s, different UK football associations have some minor different rules and this created a major conflict in international matches, as no one knows which rule is to follow. To put remedy on this problem, football associations in the UK met at the International Football Conference and planned that they should have common rules and ideologies regarding football matches.

The Operations of IFAB

This organization purposed to modify and clarify the laws of the game, that even FIFA has to get approval from IFAB. For this to be possible, The Board of IFAB is meeting twice a year to decide if they wanted to implement some changes towards the game and to deliberate some internal affairs. Whatever may be the decision during the Annual General Meeting will be announced, especially if The Board has decided to make some changes.

The Laws of the Game

IFAB implemented 17 different laws regarding the ball, players, referees, and all the other essentials in football. For instance, Law no. 1 states all about The Field of Play, which tells about the field surface, markings, dimensions, and goal area. Law no. 2 states about the qualities and measurements of the ball and how to replace a defective ball and Law no. 3 is all about the players, from the number of players down to the offenses and sanctions.

The Effects of the IFAB’s Decision

FIFA also needs the approval of IFAB when they have something to add to the law. The Board of IFAB and the continental confederation would work together hand in hand to implement some strict laws and every football participant should comply with it. The last decision will always come from IFAB because they are the only ones which are authorized trials of potential and further amendments.