International Football Association Board

The International Football Association Board is the body established in 1886 to safeguard and amend the Laws of the Game, association football’s worldwide rules.

Laws of the Game: The rules governing association football, maintained and amended by the International Football Association Board. The Board’s central responsibility is safeguarding and amending these rules.
1886 in association football: The year the four British football associations founded the International Football Association Board. The Board’s founding created a shared authority for football’s laws.
The Football Association of Wales: The governing body for association football in Wales, founded in 1876. Wales was one of the four associations that established the Board.
Back-pass rule: A rule preventing goalkeepers from handling a ball deliberately kicked to them by a teammate. The Board’s 1992 change ended a common time-wasting tactic and accelerated play.
IFAB Annual General Meeting: The International Football Association Board’s yearly meeting for deciding changes to the Laws of the Game. Proposed law changes are formally considered and approved at this meeting.
Sheffield Rules: A nineteenth-century code of association football rules developed by Sheffield clubs and used in northern England. Their differences from the Football Association’s code exemplified the rules disputes the Board helped settle.
Irish Football Association: The governing body for association football in Northern Ireland, founded in 1880. It represented Ireland among the Board’s original four founding associations.
Penalty shoot-out: A method of deciding a tied football match by taking alternating penalty kicks. The Board approved its use in football competitions in 1970.
IFAB Special Meeting: A meeting convened by the International Football Association Board outside its annual general meeting. It allows the Board to address urgent matters without waiting for its annual session.
Cambridge Rules: A set of football rules written at the University of Cambridge in the nineteenth century. Earlier attempts to standardize football rules formed part of the background to the Board’s creation.

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