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A Change in Web Design: FIFA
“The Beautiful Game” has gone under rapid transition over the past 30 years. FIFA, the governing body of the sport of soccer, has been at the forefront of this development. As it has become known as “The World’s Game,” FIFA had the tough job of finding a way to connect the world. The development of the internet and technology as a whole helped them in their task. Looking at their website from 1997 to now, we can see how technological advancements, not only affected the sport, but all of us in our everyday lives.
FIFA. Accessed October 8, 2021.
FIFA is an organization made up of many others. Though FIFA acts as the head governing body, its components are very much involved within their own internal affairs. FIFA stands for “Fédération Internationale de Football Association” or in English “International Federation of Association Football.” Association Football, or its more known term football (soccer within the United States and many other countries), is governed not only by FIFA but each country’s various “FA’s” or Football Associations. Most countries within the world have an established FA which all have some connection with FIFA. Because of this, it can be very hard to navigate other FA’s from another country. If you wanted to look up how a team was doing in another country you’d have to make sure you caught it at the right time on radio or tv, which was even harder when following an international team. With the introduction of the internet, we saw the first strides being taken in bridging this divide. The FIFA website would report scores of international teams on their website. However, this still didn’t answer the question of checking club (franchise) level results. This is where the introduction of web 2.0 comes in. With the use of hyperlinks being better understood, the website began to undergo rapid change. More and more FA’s started making their own websites which the FIFA website would reference in a hyperlink. Now rather than just checking the score of the Team USA or Brazil game, the FIFA website could also reference you to the FA of England and Spain, if you wanted to check a Manchester United or FC Barcelona game. This introduction helped grow the sport as now teams began to have international support, with the introduction of the internet, it was no longer uncommon to support a team in London if you were living in the United States. You no longer had to plan your day around watching the tv or listening to radio at a certain time to check your favorite team’s scores. These introductions helped the sport grow into the magnitude that it is now, connecting the world in a common way. Now, people from different hemispheres can find it easier to connect with each other through their bond of their favorite teams.
FIFA’s change under web 2.0 is just a small scale example of how this new technology revolutionized the way we live our lives. The internet brought us new ways to connect with each other and new experiences to be had. Whether it is bonding over the love of a sport or video calling your friends, the advancement of the web forever changed the way we live our lives.
Works Cited and Image References:
- Federation Internationale de Football Association. Accessed October 8, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/19981207004607/http://www.fifa.com/index.html.
- FIFA. Accessed October 8, 2021. https://www.fifa.com/.