Anecdotal? Surely not. The IFAB, the organization which has overseen the rules of football for 127 years, changed its status this Monday, January 13 to become an independent association of the International Federation (FIFA) and the four British federations which make it up. Founded in 1886, it is the only authority authorized to amend the rules of the game. Signatory of this change of status, FIFA President Sepp Blatter deemed the event “historic”. With this comment: “It’s historic because until now the IFAB was an organization, a kind of committee, which floated in the air of the British Federations and FIFA. Now it has been decided that the International Football Association Board should become an autonomous organization. » However, the four British federations (English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish) and FIFA remain “the main shareholders of the IFAB” with four votes for all the British federations and four votes for FIFA. But two panels were set up, one technical and the other arbitration, in order to have “a more proactive approach” in submitting new ideas.
