The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

. The IFFHS was based in

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

for some time but, in 2010, relocated to

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

, Germany, and then in 2014 to

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. From its early stages to 2002, the IFFHS concentrated on publishing the quarterly magazines ''Fußball-Weltzeitschrift'', ''Libero spezial deutsch'' and ''Libero international''. When these had to be discontinued for reasons which were not officially told, the organisation published its material in a series of multi-lingual books in co-operation with sponsors.Rafa Jiménez, ''IFFHS: La calculadora del fútbol''. '' Don Balón'' (1656), 9/15 July 2007, p. 50 (in Spanish). The statistical organisation has now confined its publishing activities to its website. IFFHS has no affiliation with FIFA, but FIFA has cited awards and records conducted by IFFHS on their website. In 2008, Karl Lennartz, a sports historian and professor at the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne () is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in 1388. It closed in 1798 before being re-established in 1919. It is now one of the largest universities in Germany with around 45,187 students. The Universit ...

, Germany, called the organisation "obscure", describing it as a one-man show of its founder Alfredo Pöge. IFFHS rankings and their significance have been a matter of criticism and the largest German news agency,

Deutsche Presse-Agentur Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (abbreviated as dpa; ) is a German news agency founded in 1949. Based in Hamburg, it has grown to be a major worldwide operation serving print media, radio, television, online, mobile phones, and national news agen ...

, refuse to publish them. Furthermore, German '' die Tageszeitung'' stated that the IFFHS rankings serves merely for publicity, although ''

Bild ''Bild'' (, ) or ''Bild-Zeitung'' (, ) is a German tabloid newspaper published by Axel Springer SE. The paper is published from Monday to Saturday; on Sundays, its sister paper '' Bild am Sonntag'' () is published instead, which has a differen ...

'',

Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave"), commonly shortened to DW (), is a German state-funded television network, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the Federal Government of Germany. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite tele ...

, '' Kicker-Sportmagazin'',

German Football Association The German Football Association ( ; DFB ) is the governing body of Association football, football, futsal, and beach soccer in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and ...

(DFB), and former president of the Association of West German Sports Journalists ( — VWS) Heribert Faßbender have referenced IFFHS.

The World's Best Club

Since 1991, the entity has produced a monthly Club World Ranking. The ranking takes into consideration the results of twelve months of continental and intercontinental competitions, national league matches (including play-offs) and the most important national cup (excluding points won before the round of 16). All countries are rated at four levels based upon the national league performance—clubs in the highest level leagues receive 4 points for each match won, 2 for a draw and 0 for a defeat. Level 2 is assigned 3 pts. (win), 1.5 (draw) and 0 (lost), and so on with the next lower levels. In continental competitions, all clubs receive the same number of points at all stages regardless of the performance level of their leagues. However, the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

and the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

yield more points than

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

and

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (; ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club com ...

, respectively. The point assignment system is still lower for the AFC, CAF,

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 4 ...

and OFC continental tournaments. Competitions between two continents are evaluated depending upon their importance. Competitions not organised by a continental confederation, or any intercontinental events not recognized by

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

, are not taken into consideration.

Men's winners

Continental Men's Clubs of the Century (1901–2000)

In 2009, the IFFHS released the results of a statistical study series which determined the best

continent A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention (norm), convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as ...

al clubs of the 20th century. The ranking did not consider the performance of the teams in national football tournaments (except in the Oceania's club ranking due to limited editions held under OFC club competitions), the performance in the intercontinental or worldwide club competitions or those submitted in the IFFHS Club World Ranking, available since 1991. Based on this study, which assigned a weighted score criteria applied for each competition analysed, the below six clubs were named as "continental clubs of the century" by the IFFHS between 10 September and 13 October 2009. These clubs were awarded with a golden trophy and a certificate during the ''World Football Gala'' celebrated at

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

, London, on 11 May 2010.

The Best Men's Club of the Decade

In 2012, the IFFHS recognised Barcelona as the ''World's Best Club Team of the Decade'' for the first decade of the 21st century (2001–2010). In 2021, Barcelona were recognised as the world's best club also for the second decade (2011–2020).

Women's winners

The World's Strongest National League

Men's league

The Strongest National League of the Decade

Women's league

The World's Best Player

Men's winners

''From

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

until

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

continued this distinction named "

FIFA World Player of the Year The FIFA World Player of the Year was an association football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, between 1991 and 2015 at the FIFA World Player Gala. Coaches and captains of international teams and media representative ...

"; this award was later replaced by the

FIFA Ballon d'Or The FIFA Ballon d'Or ("Golden Ball") was an annual association football award presented to the world's best men's player from 2010 to 2015. Awarded jointly by FIFA and ''France Football'', the prize was a merger of the FIFA World Player of the Y ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, and

The Best FIFA Men's Player The Best FIFA Men's Player is an association football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, since 2016, to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous calendar year. The award was formerly known ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

. The award was reinstated in 2020.''

Women's winners

The World's Best Man Player of the Century (1901–2000)

The World's Best Woman Player of the Century (1901–2000)

IFFHS gave out an award decided by votes which was conducted with the participation of journalists and former players (no further details given).

The World's Best Man Player of the 19th Century (until 1900)

In November 2021 IFFHS announce the Dream Team of the XIX Century and the top 3 players. GOSmith

The World's Best Youth (U20) Player

The award was introduced in 2021.

Men's winners

Women's winners

The World's Best Playmaker

Men's winners

The IFFHS World's Best Playmaker is a footballing award which, since 2006, is given annually to the best

playmaker In association football, a playmaker is a footballer who controls the flow of the team's play, and is often involved in offensively and defensively playing Passing (association football), passing moves which lead to Goal (sport), goals, through ...

of the year, as chosen by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS). The award is awarded at the end of the year at the ''World Football Gala'': the winning playmaker is awarded a gold trophy. Argentina's

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional Association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Major League Soccer ...

has won the award a record five times. Spain's

Xavi Xavi () is a Catalan given name, usually used as a nickname for Xavier. Notable people with the name include: Football * Xavi Hernández (born 1980), Spanish football manager and former player * Xavi Andorrà (born 1985), Andorran footballe ...

won the award four times, all consecutively, while Belgian

Kevin De Bruyne Kevin De Bruyne (; born 28 June 1991) is a Belgian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a midfielder for club SSC Napoli, Napoli and captains the Belgium national football team, Belgium national team. After spending mos ...

won the award three times.

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

is the club with the most wins, with ten in total.

was named the Best Playmaker since 2006 and the Best Playmaker of the Decade 2011–2020.

Women's winners

Dzsenifer Marozsán was named the Best Playmaker since 2006 and the Best Playmaker of the Decade 2011–2020.

The World's Best Goalkeeper

Men's winners

Women's winners

The World's Best Top Goal Scorer

This award is given annually since 2020, and retroactively from 2011 to 2019, to the world's top goalscorer in the calendar year.

Men's winners

All-time World's Best Goal Scorer ranking

:Bold indicates players currently active.

Women's winners

The women's award was introduced in 2021.

The World's Best International Goal Scorer

This award is given annually since 1991 to the world's top international goalscorer in the calendar year.

Men's winners

Women's winners

The women's award was introduced in 2021.

The World's Best Top Division Goal Scorer

This award is given annually since 1997 to the player who scores the most goals in a league season (in a calendar year since 2020) in any of the top 60 leagues in the world (as ranked by IFFHS for that given year).

Men's winners

All-time World's Best Top Division Goal Scorer ranking

:Bold indicates players currently active.

The World's Best Top Division Goal Scorer of the First Decade (2001–2010)

The final list includes the 18 players who scored 150 or more goals in top-tier national leagues in the period of time from 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2010. The results were posted on the IFFHS' official website on 25 September 2022.

The World's Best Top Division Goal Scorer of the Second Decade (2011–2020)

The final list includes the 36 players who scored 150 or more goals in top-tier national leagues in the period of time from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2020. The results were posted on the IFFHS' official website on 6 January 2021.

Women's winners

The women's award was introduced in 2021.

The World's Most Effective Top Division Goal Scorer

This award was given annually from 1997 to 2004 to the player with the best goal ratio (goals/matches played) in a league season in any of the top 60 leagues in the world (as ranked by IFFHS for that given year).

Men's winners

The World Team

Men's winners

In 2017, IFFHS started to nominate a world team of the year.

19th Century Men's Dream Team (2021)

The XI covers the 1863-1900 period. StiveBloomer

20th Century Men's Dream Team (2000)

The XIs cover the 1901-2000 period. Bobby Moore 1969

All-time Men's Dream Team (2021)

The XIs published by IFFHS cover the 1901-2020 period. LevYashin

Women's winners

In 2017, IFFHS started to nominate a world team of the year.

All-time Women's Dream Team (2021)

The World Youth (U20) Team

The award was introduced in 2020.

Men's winners

Women's winners

The World's Best Club Coach

Men's winners

Women's winners

The World's Best National Coach

Men's winners

Women's winners

The World's Best Referee

Men's winners

Felix Brych was awarded the prize for Men's Referee of the Decade 2011–20. 2017293155419 2017-10-20 Fussball Frauen Deutschland vs Island - Sven - 1D X MK II - 0017 - B70I0638

2017293155419 2017-10-20 Fussball Frauen Deutschland vs Island - Sven - 1D X MK II - 0017 - B70I0638

Women's winners

Bibiana Steinhaus was awarded the prize for Women's Referee of the Decade 2011–20.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:International Federation of Football History and Statistics Association football organizations Sports organizations established in 1984 1984 establishments in East Germany Association football websites + History of association football