How World Sport Governance Is Layered, From the IOC to a National Federation

At the top of the structure sits the International Olympic Committee, founded on 23 June 1894 in Paris by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, who became its first president. It organizes the Summer and Winter Olympic Games across every sport in the Olympic program.

The International Paralympic Committee runs a parallel authority at the same top level for Paralympic sport. It was founded on 22 September 1989 in Dusseldorf, replacing an earlier coordinating body from 1982.

A third body shares the top level without running any competition itself. The World Anti-Doping Agency was established on 10 November 1999 in Lausanne by national governments and the IOC together, and its governing board is split evenly between the two.

One level down, a worldwide federation governs a single sport rather than the whole Olympic program. FIFA was founded on 21 May 1904 in Paris by seven national football associations and now counts 211 member national associations.

The same worldwide federation shape also governs a mind sport rather than a physical one. The World Bridge Federation was formed on 18 August 1958 in Oslo by delegates from Europe, the United States and South America to run world championship bridge.

Beneath a worldwide federation sits a continental confederation, one of six regional tiers FIFA delegates to. UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations, was founded in Basel on 15 June 1954 as European football's own governing body.

At the national level, a country's own Olympic committee mirrors the IOC's multi-sport role for its own athletes. The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee traces its origins to the American Olympic Committee formed in 1894.

Narrowest of all is the national federation for one sport in one country. The Football Association was founded in 1863 in London and is generally regarded as the oldest national football association in the world, credited with codifying the modern Laws of the Game.