211. Not 193. Not 195. Two hundred eleven.
And sure, that’s more than the actual number of countries on Earth. There are 193 members of the UN. That’s 18 more than FIFA. Which is unusual to hear the first time. How can a football group have more members than countries on the whole planet?
Short answer: not all FIFA member associations are countries. Some are islands that belong to bigger countries. Some are historic football institutions. Others are territories with their own leagues but no separate government. The long answer is below.
Why More Than the UN?
That's the thing about England.
England is no political country. Not by itself. #1. The United Kingdom is a nation. The UK has one vote in the United Nations. But football? England has a separate association. And Scotland too. Wales. N. Ireland. Four different memberships from one country since those four football associations existed before FIFA was ever created in 1904. Old news.
Permanent Members. Nobody's going to take them away. That adds three more seats (the UK as a whole has no seat). Then there are the territories.
FIFA had allowed non-independent countries to join for decades. Gibraltar came in. Hong Kong was in. Puerto Rico . Guam. Aruba. Bermuda. Curacao. Macau. Cook Islands. 13. Faroe Islands. Turks and Caicos: All of them are technically under bigger countries. Politically, Spain owns Gibraltar. China controls Hong Kong and Macau. Aruba and Curacao are ruled by the Netherlands. But all those places have their own football teams and are part of FIFA.
FIFA then shut that door. Now, new members have to be sovereign countries. But once everyone gets in, they’re in their seat. Always have. Always will.
So, that’s essentially the gist of it.
Six confederations of FIFA
So not all the 211 associations may be put under Geneva. Too many. FIFA groups them into 6 regional confederations. All of them do qualifying and youth tournaments and continental championships for their patch.
The biggest one is UEFA. Fifty-five associations in Europe. CAF is right behind at 54. Africa has cricket, athletics, and rugby in various corners, but football is dominant, and 54 members show it. At 47, Asia stretches from Japan and South Korea to countries still building their first proper pitches. CONCACAF at 41 goes from Canada to Mexico, Central America, and all those Caribbean islands. CONMEBOL has only 10 members, but two of those are Brazil and Argentina, so that's not the problem. Oceania’s OFC has only 4 full FIFA members, while numerous Pacific islands play under the OFC umbrella without full FIFA status.
Non-FIFA Countries
Eight full UN members are not FIFA members. That's the interesting thing.
One is Monaco. Small. Extremely rich. Home to AS Monaco, one of the greatest clubs in Europe. But their national football association never became a member of FIFA. Never have.
Then there is the Pacific island group: Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu, and the Fed States of Micronesia. Tiny populations. Very limited infrastructure. Some play regional games under OFC without really being a FIFA member country. Others barely have organised football at all yet.
The UK sits outside too, as a single entity, because its four parts already participate individually.
FIFA Ranking Countries and the 2026 World Cup
All 211 FIFA-ranked countries appear in the rankings system. Results go in, ELO calculation runs, points move. You have to beat a stronger side in a World Cup match to gain a lot. Win a low-profile friendly against a weaker team and get almost nothing.
Of the 211, just 48 went to the 2026 World Cup in North America. That was an actual enlargement. Used to be 32. FIFA upped it to 48, particularly so that more FIFA football countries across Africa, Asia, and Oceania could possibly qualify. In the original 32-team format, Oceania often had no representative at all or had to suffer a grueling playoff against a South American club. 48 changed that.
The 211 associations vote on these issues, by the way. One vote apiece in the FIFA Congress. Brazil gets one. Anguilla, population 18,000, receives one. Same weight. Equal votes regardless of population or money.
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Final Thoughts
How many countries are members of FIFA? 211 FIFA member associations. Bigger than the UN. Territories got in under earlier regs. The British four gained permanent individual seats. Eight actual UN states are completely absent. Six FIFA confederations distribute the job. And 270 million people play across all those associations combined.