Football (soccer) is a very interesting and popular game. It is probably the most popular game all over the world. There are many different football clubs in the world, and a great number of football competitions take place on a regular basis. The different football associations and leagues were set up at different times to control and regulate football events in the world.

Almost each country in the world has national football associations. Of all these associations, "The Football Association" of England is probably the oldest (it does not even refer to any particular country, since it was the very first and only football association). All the national football associations are organized into six different continental organizations. These associations are AFC (Asian Football Confederation) in Australia and Asia, CONMEBOL (Confederacion Sudamericana de Futbol) in South America, CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) in North and Central America, CAF (Confederation Africaine de Football) in Africa, OFC (Oceania Football Confederation) in Oceania and UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) in Europe.

In their turn, all these regional associations are members of FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) organization. This organization regulates all international football competitions. FIFA's commercial activity is also pretty high - this organization earns impressive revenue from competitions and even uses its name to earn money.

FIFA can also make changes to the laws of football. But it is not the only organization in the football world empowered to do that. There is also the so-called International Football Association Board (IFAB), which is responsible for determining laws in football. Along with FIFA, the Football Association, the Scottish Football Association, the Football Association of Wales and the Irish Football Association are represented in IFAB.

There are also different football leagues that bring together football clubs. For example, NFL (National Football League) consists of 32 football teams from different regions of the United States of America. In 1960-1969, there was the so-called American Football League (AFL), which merged with NFL in 1970. AFL was a very big league in America and held different AFL competitions. But the AFL history was not that long. AFL-NFL merging process was the result of a long rivalry between NFL and AFL. It was decided to keep the name and logo of NFL, so AFL became only a part of football history. If you are interested in the development of football, you can always find a lot of information about AFL in different football sources. For example, the Internet has many web sites containing information about AFL and other football leagues. In fact, there are currently existing football leagues, abbreviated as AFL. Australian Football League is an example. So, you should keep that in mind when looking for the information about different football leagues.