Ever since Frenchman Robert Guerin became the first, it has never proved an easy task. In May 1904, the new Federation Internationale de Football Associations was established at 229 Rue St Honore in Paris. Delegates from The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland shared French enthusiasm, as did supporters from Spain and Sweden, but FIFA’s founders did not include the long established British Associations. 

Guerin had travelled to London to meet Lord Kinnaird, President of the English Football Association (FA). He also met FA Secretary Frederick Wall but later described the experience as like "slicing water with a knife".

Within a year, FIFA had 11 members and planned for an international tournament. Progress on this proved difficult. In 1906, Guerin stood down after difficulties within French football. An Englishman, Daniel Burley Woolfall, became President.

A product of Blackburn Grammar School in north west England, Woolfall became prominent in the Lancashire Football Association and was also a leading figure in local tennis and cricket. He became FA treasurer in 1901 and was listed in an FA company document as clerk to the commissioner of taxes for the hundred of Blackburn.

It was the FA that organised football at the 1908 Olympics. This was the first authentic international tournament. Four years later, for the Stockholm Games, membership of FIFA had become a requirement for entry.

FIFA was growing but war was also on its way. All development in football was put on hold and in 1918, Woolfall died at the age of 66. His successor was a Frenchman destined to become synonymous with FIFA. His name? Jules Rimet. He had never played the game at the highest level but as French journalist Maurice Pefferkorn wrote in the early 1920s: “He has on all occasions showed a vibrant love of football and is so devoted to the cause of sport that no-one could doubt his right to direct our affairs.”

The early years of Rimet’s presidency were marked by a major dispute. Amateur status was all important at the Olympics. The idea of "broken time" or compensation for working time lost to training and playing football prompted feverish discussions. The British and Scandinavian Football Associations, whose regulations were being flouted, walked out of FIFA.

On a smaller scale, Rimet himself had been a peacemaker in one match in France involving the famous Corinthians. The home goalkeeper had disagreed with a decision and stormed off, but Rimet intervened to mollify him.

The 1924 Olympic Games were held in Paris. Rimet was a vice president of the Olympic Organising Committee and took charge of the jury of appeal for football. Despite the concerns over "broken time" it was a great success. An exciting Uruguayan team won gold, but Rimet’s compatriot Henri Delaunay later told a FIFA Congress “international football can no longer be held within the confines of the Olympics.”

Uruguay won a second Olympic tournament in 1928 before FIFA finally decided to stage a World Cup. Thanks in no small measure to the efforts of Uruguayan diplomat Enrique Buero, his country was chosen as host nation ahead of counter claims from Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands and Italy.

Rimet was delighted. At first European nations were hesitant but in the end Belgium, France, Romania and Yugoslavia all sailed for Montevideo in 1930. On board the same ship was Rimet himself.

“I love the sea and this long voyage will give me all the pleasure I wish,” he wrote in his diary.

He took with him the trophy, made by a French sculptor, Albert LaFleur.

“The World Cup is in solid gold. The World Cup must be first amongst sporting events and gold symbolises that primacy,” said Rimet.

He was to present the trophy to Uruguay in 1930 and then twice in succession to the Italians, though at least in 1938 Rimet had the satisfaction of seeing a World Cup staged in his homeland.

After the war, the trophy was named in his honour and Rimet remained in office until 1954. “World unity of football, the essential goal of FIFA, has been an accomplished fact,"  he said.

His successor was Rodolphe William Seeldrayers, known to his intimates as "Billy". A lawyer, he had helped found the Belgian Football Association and led the Belgian Olympic Committee. Rimet’s right hand man since the 1920s, he had persuaded his countrymen to take part in the first World Cup. He also interpreted at FIFA meetings. He was the first International Olympic Committee (IOC) member to become President of FIFA, but he died only a year after his election, aged 78.

Tributes described him as "remarkably young in mental outlook as well as appearance as he did not look his age".

FIFA then turned to an Englishman. Arthur Drewry had made his fortune in fish processing and had been a director of Grimsby Town. He had been President of the Football League and chairman of the FA. He had even been chiefly responsible for choosing the England team at the 1950 World Cup. They were knocked out after a shock defeat to the United States. Failure on the field did not harm Drewry’s political ambition, though his tenure of the top job was short lived. He died in 1961.

Another Englishman, Sir Stanley Rous, was now elected President. He beat Ernst Thommen of Switzerland and Yugoslavia’s candidate, Professor Mihailo Andrejevic, on the second ballot.

”It had never occurred to me that I might be considered and I played no part in the nomination," he said.

Rous had been a schoolmaster and an enthusiastic match referee who had devised the zonal system of refereeing. He had been at the heart of the game since the mid 1930s as secretary of the FA and urged the British Associations to rejoin FIFA after the war.

Rous was also a member of the 1948 Olympic organising committee, a role for which he was knighted.

His presidency came in an era when the sporting world was confronted by apartheid in South Africa. The Sharpeville massacre was still fresh in the memory.

“FIFA cannot be used as a weapon to force a Government to change its internal sports policy,” said Rous, who was criticised for dragging his feet.

"I was sometimes accused in FIFA meetings of being too sympathetic to white South Africans.”

The Africans were also irritated that FIFA did not grant them an automatic place at the World Cup finals. They stayed away in 1966.

The Soviets also had grounds for hostility to Rous. They were expelled from the 1974 World Cup for refusing to play Chile in a play-off match in Santiago. They objected to using a stadium which had had held prisoners after General Pinochet’s coup a few months before.

Rous was seen as too patrician by the developing world yet he was confident of re-election in 1974. 

“I shall certainly stand again. I feel I can do a good job and that I am not too doddery to continue,” he said.

The challenge came from a Brazilian, Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid de Havelange, better known as João. An Olympic swimmer and water polo player before his involvement with football, he had made his fortune in transportation. His sporting power-base was within the Brazilian Sports Confederation. Since 1963 he had also been an IOC member.

In common with other South American nations, Brazil harboured resentment that the 1966 World Cup held in England had been loaded in favour of the Europeans.

“Joao Havelange’s candidacy is not for South America. His candidacy is for the entire world," said Brazilian sports official Sylvio Pacheco.

The campaign was built on an appeal to the Afro-Asian Bloc. Havelange won convincingly on the second ballot by 68 votes to 52.

Along with two other long serving officials, Rous was presented with flowers. ”Theirs are bouquets. Mine is in the nature of a wreath," he said bitterly.

Havelange courted the smaller nations in world football and set up development programmes across the world. He also lost no time in opening the door for China to return to international football.

In 1977, the inaugural world youth tournament was held in Tunisia, a first for Africa.

To support these efforts, FIFA had signed a host of major international companies as sponsors including Coca-Cola, JVC and Adidas.

Havelange was determined to expand the 1982 World Cup to 24 teams.

‘‘A courageous decision which requires careful planning," he said. "Spain will be the perfect setting for this spectacle. The whole country is contributing towards the 1982 World Cup reaching the limits of perfection. The challenge was accepted in the spirit of the Cid and Don Quixote."

The draw held in Madrid was anything but perfection as the equipment used malfunctioned. It was not a good omen. With a few exceptions, the tournament proved a disappointment.

Despite criticism, Havelange persisted with the idea. The 1986 tournament had initially been awarded to Colombia, but it became clear that they could not cope with 24 nations. Ahead of bids from the US, Brazil and Canada, Mexico were chosen as replacement hosts. Some pointed out that Havelange was close friends with two Mexican television executives.

Havelange brushed away criticism.

“Take the case of the Olympic Games, one is always taking about the gigantism and yet the event does not stop growing," he claimed.

He was keen for football to remain part of the Olympics but in 1976 called for an age restriction. By 1984 he had his wish. From then on it was restricted to professionals under 23, though each team was permitted a quota of over age players.

‘’This was a pioneering achievement of FIFA,” according to secretary Sepp Blatter.

Women’s football was admitted to the Olympics, without age restriction, in 1996. Their World Cup also flourished under his presidency.

Before the 1994 World Cup in the United States, Havelange lent his voice to an idea to split matches into four quarters. He also looked at enlarging the size of the goals themselves. Neither of these schemes were adopted, but a no back pass rule was successfully introduced.

Pele, then the single most famous footballer in the USA, took no part in that 1994 World Cup draw. Many suspected this was because Havelange’s son in law was Ricardo Teixeira, who was locked in a legal dispute with the Brazilian great. 

Havelange finally stood down in 1998 just before the World Cup in France, the first to be contested by 32 teams. By this time FIFA had already decided to take the World Cup to Asia for the first time in 2002.

“He has made a tremendous contribution to the game throughout the world,” said senior FIFA vice president Harry Cavan.

Havelange was 82, but remained a full IOC member. He was made honorary president of FIFA. Well into his nineties, he had the bearing and presence of a much younger man. He abruptly resigned from the IOC in 2011 as investigations into the sports marketing company ISL were about to be published. Later, he also stood down as honorary President of FIFA and was accused by Swiss prosecutors of corruption along with Teixeira, a long time FIFA vice president who was considered at one stage a likely successor.

For much of his reign, Havelange had been accompanied by FIFA general secretary Blatter, who had joined FIFA in 1975 after a public relations career which included Longines and Swiss Timing. He became FIFA secretary in 1981 and was the smiling figure who explained the intricacies of the World Cup draw.

He was still smiling in June 1998. He beat the fancied UEFA President Lennart Johannsson by 111 votes to 80 to win the presidency, but even on the day of his election he was asked whether his campaign was corrupt.

“The players have already gone to the changing room, I will not answer this question,” he said.

When the Salt Lake City bribery scandal broke at the IOC, Blatter, a newly elected member, was appointed to the committee given the task of reform.

He also suggested many changes for football, prompting British journalist Brian Glanville to say "Blatter: 50 ideas a day, 51 bad”.

A proposal for a World Cup every two years was not accepted, nor did his plan for a global football season to run from February to November find favour. An expanded FIFA World Club Championship was accepted. It featured all continental champions and was introduced for the first time in 2000.

To Blatter’s disappointment, FIFA chose Germany to stage the 2006 World Cup ahead of South Africa. He did eventually take the tournament to Africa in 2010, but when Russia were later crowned 2018 hosts and Qatar voted in for 2022, at the same meeting, there was disquiet at how host nations were selected.

In 2014 a film called “United Passions” starred Tim Roth as Blatter and Gerard Depardieu as Rimet. It had a £16 million ($23.2 million/€20.6 million) budget but met with a chorus of disapproval which suggested FIFA’s leadership was losing touch with reality.

Even so, in the summer of 2015, Blatter beat Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan to retain the FIFA Presidency.

“Let's go FIFA, let’s go,” he said, but within six months he was suspended and many of his Executive Committee had been either arrested or indicted. These included UEFA President Michel Platini after the revelation of a "disloyal payment" came to light.

Perhaps the most telling image of the Blatter era came when comedian Simon Brodkin threw fake banknotes at the bemused soon to be ex President.

“Where is my security?,‘’ asked Blatter. Then he left the stage as he told the gathered media without irony: "We have to clean up, this has nothing to do with football."