The 211 member associations receive financial and logistical support from FIFA through various programs.

We take a look at the extraordinary work that FIFA's member associations have been doing in recent weeks to promote, strengthen and make football truly global.

The 2024 Olympic Games are open and the race for medals has begun in the Men's and Women's Olympic Football Tournaments. Five years after the FIFA Women's World Cup™ was held in France, Les Bleues have another opportunity to play a major tournament in front of their home fans and once again contribute to the tremendous growth of women's football in the country. France 2019 enabled the French Football Federation to double the number of women registered to play, from 70,000 in 2014 to 140,000 five years later.

Last March, the FFF announced that it had 247,160 members, a figure that its president Philippe Diallo hopes to see pass the 500,000 mark within five years. On the refereeing front, Paris 2024 is also shaking things up with the appointment of mixed teams of officials to supervise matches in the men's and women's tables.

Women's football in Asia has seen a huge resurgence recently, as Vietnam and the Philippines showed with their first qualification for the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2023. The AFC Women's Champions League is scheduled to start at the end of 2024, while the Philippines will host the inaugural FIFA Futsal Women's World Cup™ in 2025.

To further drive the development, FIFA, in collaboration with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the Football Association of Indonesia (Persatuan Sepakbola Seluruh Indonesia PSSI), hosted a regional women's football workshop in Jakarta, where the FIFA President opened the FIFA Indonesia Office ahead of last year's FIFA U-17 World Cup. Each member association was represented by the person responsible for women's football development in their country.

For the first time in the history of the competition, a team of referees at the Copa América consisted exclusively of women. The main referee was the Brazilian Edina Alves Batista. Her performance put her in the Copa América history books, as she was the first woman to referee a match (Panama v Bolivia) in the competition's rich history.

Alves Batista (FIFA-SP) was assisted by Neuza Ines Back, also from Brazil, and Colombian assistant Mary Blanco. The match was also attended by Americans Brooke Mayo and Kathryn Nesbitt and Nicaraguan Tatiana Guzmán.

The George Best Community Cup is an annual cup competition for clubs that support players with disabilities. It is organised by the Irish Football Association and supported by the George Best Foundation and Cash for Kids through the Mary Peters Trust.

Over 500 players aged 15 and over took part in the games in July, which were played in four performance groups as part of the Disability Football Festival at the Billy Neill Complex in Dundonald.

Alan Crooks, tournament organiser and Head of Disability Football Development at the Irish FA Foundation, said the annual event was once again a great success. “It was great to see so many players enjoying themselves and we are delighted to be able to provide a platform for these talented players to showcase their skills.”

In collaboration with FIFA, the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) has resumed its initiative to distribute football equipment across the country.

This nationwide initiative aims to reach schools in every province, with a particular focus on outlying areas. With this comprehensive offering, the program aims to promote a culture of sportsmanship, camaraderie and personal development among Zimbabwe's youth.

Following a FIFA Talent Development Scheme (TDS) seminar recently held in Ghana, the country's Football Association (GFA) has been given the green light by FIFA to train scouts for talent scouting across the country.

The training of the scouts began with an online training program that focused on the elements the scouts should look out for when scouting talent and assessing the potential of young footballers. The training program was led by FIFA scouting expert Laban Scott Libby and CAF Elite Scout Coach Professor Joseph Kwame Mintah, GFA Elite Academy Manager Joseph Tetteh-Zutah and GFA Head of Talent Identification Papa Nii Lartey.

The Elite U-15 Girls Championship at the Ghanaman Soccer Centre in Prampram took place during those days too - the first ever tournament for girls in this age group.

The Namibian women’s national team enjoyed dropping into the FIFA Museum in Zurich this month to kindly donate a shirt for our collection.

The benefits of hosting the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup™ continue to resonate in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand nearly a year on from the tournament. Professional and grassroots clubs across both nations enjoyed a financial windfall with this week’s announcement of the recipients for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Club Benefits Programme. Introduced for the first time for the 2019 edition of the tournament, the programme rewards eligible clubs for their role in developing players who were selected for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Launched in Kenya in July 2023, the Football For Schools programme reached a new milestone in its roll-out across the country this month with a gathering of 450 children from 30 of the country's primary schools in Embu on 20 July.

In addition to F4S workshops and the distribution of footballs, the focus was on developing women's football, a discipline that is gaining ground in Kenya, as demonstrated by the country's first-ever qualification for the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, which kicks off on 16 October in the Dominican Republic.