View source for FIFA Order of Merit

{{Short description|Highest honour awarded by FIFA}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox order
|title=FIFA Order of Merit
|image           = File:FIFA Order of Merit.jpg
|caption         = The FIFA Order of Merit
|awarded_by      = [[FIFA]]
|type            = [[Order of merit]]
|eligibility     = Any individual
|for             = "significant contribution to the development of association football"
|status          = Active
|grades          = 1
|date            = 1984
|first_induction = 1984
|last_induction  = 2012
|total           = 121
}}
The '''FIFA Order of Merit''' is the highest honour awarded by [[FIFA]]. The award is presented at the annual FIFA congress. It is normally awarded to people who are considered to have made a significant contribution to [[:association football]].

At FIFA's centennial congress they made one award for every decade of their existence. These awards were also handed out to fans, organisations, clubs, and one to [[Confederation of African Football|African Football]]. These were referred to as the FIFA Centennial Order of Merit.

The winner does not have to be directly involved with football to receive it. One such notable non-footballing personality was [[Nelson Mandela]] who won it for bringing South Africa back to international football.

==Recipients==
===Personalities directly involved in football===
====Associations====
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Recipient!!Year!!Nationality!!Notes
|-
|[[Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol]]||2004||{{URU}}|| Centennial Award in 2004
|-
|[[Confederation of African Football|African Football]]||2004|| || Centennial Award in 2004
|-
|[[International Football Association Board]]||2004|| || Centennial Award in 2004
|}

====Clubs====
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Recipient!!Year!!Nationality!!Notes
|-
||[[Sheffield F.C.]]||2004||{{ENG}}|| Centennial Award in 2004<ref name="Sheffield">{{cite news|url=http://www.sheffieldfc.com/honours|title=Honours of Oldest Soccer Team in World|publisher=Sheffield FC|date=20 January 2018|access-date=20 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180120182235/http://www.sheffieldfc.com/honours|archive-date=20 January 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|-
||[[Real Madrid C.F.]]||2004||{{ESP}}|| Centennial Award in 2004
|}

====Players====
[[File:Pele by John Mathew Smith.jpg|thumb|Pelé was named Athlete of Century by the [[International Olympic Committee]] in 1999]]

[[File:Johan Cruijff 2013 Catalonia.jpg|thumb|Johan Cruyff received the award for his contributions as both footballer and a coach]]
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Recipient!!Year!!Nationality!!Notes
|-
|[[Franz Beckenbauer]]*||1984, 2004||{{GER}}|| Centennial Award in 2004
|-
|[[Bobby Charlton]]||1984||{{ENG}}||
|-
|[[Pelé]]||1984, 2004||{{BRA}}|| Centennial Award in 2004
|-
|[[Dino Zoff]]||1984||{{ITA}}||
|-
||[[Lev Yashin]]||1988||{{URS}}||
|-
|[[Antonio Carbajal]]||1992||{{MEX}}||
|-
|[[Stanley Matthews]]||1992||{{ENG}}||
|-
|[[Francisco Varallo]]||1994||{{ARG}}||
|-
|[[Alfredo Di Stefano]]||1994||{{ARG}}||
|-
|[[Fritz Walter]]||1994||{{GER}}||
|-
|[[Ferenc Puskás]]||1994||{{HUN}}||
|-
|[[Eusébio]]||1994||{{POR}}||
|-
|[[Just Fontaine]]||1994||{{FRA}}||
|-
|[[Gunn Nyborg]]||1994||{{NOR}}||
|-
|[[Obdulio Varela]]||1994||{{URU}}||
|-
|[[Zico (footballer)|Zico]]<ref name="zico">{{cite news|url=https://www.fifa.com/news/y=1996/m=8/news=anniversary-with-nine-fifa-order-merit-awards-71614.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160128053345/http://www.fifa.com/news/y=1996/m=8/news=anniversary-with-nine-fifa-order-merit-awards-71614.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=28 January 2016 |title=Anniversary with nine FIFA Order of Merit Awards|publisher=FIFA|date=9 August 1996|access-date=20 January 2018}}</ref>||1996||{{BRA}}||
|-
||[[Bobby Moore]]||1996||{{ENG}}||
|-
||[[Salif Keïta (Malian footballer)|Salif Keita]]||1996||{{MLI}}||
|-
||[[Michelle Akers]]||1998||{{USA}}||
|-
||[[Larbi Benbarek]]||1998||{{MAR}}||
|-
||[[Gilmar]]||1998||{{BRA}}||
|-
||[[Gerd Müller]]||1998||{{GER}}||
|-
||[[Ivan Toplak]]||2000||{{SVN}}||
|-
||[[David Kipiani]]||2002||{{GEO}}||
|-
|[[Pradip Kumar Banerjee]]||2004||{{IND}}||Centennial Award in 2004
|-
|[[Muhammad Umer]]||2004||{{PAK}}||Centennial Award in 2004
|-
|[[Hafizuddin Ahmed]]||2004||{{BAN}}||Centennial Award in 2004
|-
||[[Lee Ramoon]]||2004||{{CYM}}||
|-
||[[Paolo Maldini]]||2008||{{ITA}}||
|-
||[[Johan Cruijff]]*||2010||{{NED}}||
|-
||[[Steve Sumner]]||2010||{{NZL}}||Centennial Award in 2004
|-
||[[Alcides Ghiggia]]||2010||{{URU}}||
|}

====Managers====
[[File:20171114 AUT URU 4562.jpg|thumb|Oscar Tabaréz is the last person to receive the FIFA Order of Merit for his contributions as a coach]]
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Recipient!!Year!!Nationality!!Notes
|-
|[[Franz Beckenbauer]]*||1984, 2004||{{GER}}|| Centennial Award in 2004
|-
||[[Helmut Schön]]||1984||{{GER}}||
|-
||[[Mário Zagallo]]||1992||{{BRA}}||
|-
||[[Karl Heinz Weigang]]||1998||{{GER}}||
|-
||[[Miljan Miljanić]]*||2002||{{SRB}}||
|-
||[[Valeriy Lobanovskyi]]||2003||{{UKR}}||
|-
||[[Sein Hlaing]]||2004||{{MYA}}||
|-
||[[Bobby Robson]]||2009||{{ENG}}|| Emerald Award <ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.uefa.com/news-media/news/01d7-0f85b3e8fc47-7a3a9813f01f-1000--uefa-tribute-to-loyal-football-servants/ | title=The official website for European football }}</ref>
|-
||[[Kazimierz Górski]]*||2006||{{POL}}||
|-
||[[Nodar Akhalkatsi]]||2008||{{GEO}}||
|-
||[[Johan Cruijff]]*||2010||{{NED}}||
|-
||[[Winston Chung Fah]]||2012||{{JAM}}||
|-
||[[Óscar Tabárez]]||2012||{{URU}}||
|}

====Referees====
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Recipient!!Year!!Nationality!!Notes
|-
||[[Stanley Rous]]*||1984||{{ENG}}||
|-
|[[Nikolay Latyshev]]||1987||{{URS}}||
|-
||[[Tiny Wharton|Thomas Wharton]]||1992||{{SCO}}||
|-
|[[Farouk Bouzo]]||1996||{{SYR}}||
|-
|Javier Arriaga Muñiz||1996||{{MEX}}||
|-
||[[Fernando Giménez Álvarez|Fernando G. Álvarez]]||2005||{{PHI}}||
|-
|Hari Raj Naicker||2012||{{FIJ}}||
|}

===Administrators===

[[File:Stanley Rous.jpg|thumb|The 6th President of FIFA Stanley Rous was also serving as the international referee]]

[[File:Santiago Bernabeu.jpg|thumb|Santiago Bernabeu is generally considered the one to whom much of the credit can be given for transforming Real Madrid C.F. into the most successful football club in [[Spain]] and in [[Europe]]]]

[[File:Miljan Miljanić (1971).jpg|thumb|Miljan Miljanić became the recipient of the award posthumously for his contributions as a coach and the President of the Football Federation of Yugoslavia/Serbia]]

[[File:Jules Rimet 1933.jpg|thumb|Jules Rimet is [[FIFA]]'s longest-serving president and the initiator of the first FIFA World Cup]]
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Recipient!!Year!!Nationality!!Notes
|-
||[[Stanley Rous]]*||1984||{{ENG}}||
|-
||[[Mihajlo Andrejević]]||1984||{{YUG}}||
|-
||[[Paulo Machado de Carvalho]]||1987||{{BRA}}||
|-
||Ferdinand Hidalgo||1987||{{ECU}}||
|-
||Teófilo Salinas Fuller||1987||{{PER}}||
|-
||Marat Gramov||1987||{{URS}}||
|-
||[[João Lyra|João Lyra Filho]]||1988||{{BRA}}||
|-
||[[Pedro Escartín]]||1988||{{ESP}}||
|-
||[[Yidnekatchew Tessema]]||1988||{{ETH}}||
|-
||K. Ziauddin||1992||{{IND}}||
|-
||Shizuo Fujita||1992||{{JPN}}||
|-
||Juan José Russo||1992||{{ARG}}||
|-
||Abdel Aziz Mostafa||1992||{{EGY}}||
|-
||[[Arthur George]]||1994||{{AUS}}||
|-
||[[Chen Chengda]]||1994||{{CHN}}||
|-
||[[Abdel Halim Muhammad]]||1994||{{SUD}}||
|-
||[[Gene Edwards (soccer executive)|Gene Edwards]]||1994||{{USA}}||
|-
||[[Vitali Smirnov]]||1995||{{RUS}}||
|-
||[[Maurice Burlaz Trophy|Maurice Burlaz]]||1996||{{FRA}}||
|-
||[[Henry Fok]]||1998||{{HKG}}||
|-
||[[Julio Grondona]]||1998||{{ARG}}||
|-
||[[Vyacheslav Koloskov]]||1998||{{RUS}}||
|-
||[[Bert Millichip]]||1998||{{ENG}}||
|-
||[[Guillermo Cañedo de la Bárcena]]||1998||{{MEX}}||
|-
||Abilio d'Almeida||2000||{{BRA}}||
|-
||[[Josep Lluís Núñez]]||2000||{{ESP}}||
|-
||Nabon Noor||2000||{{IDN}}||
|-
||Azrikam Miltchan||2000||{{ISR}}||
|-
||[[Horace Burrell]]||2000||{{JAM}}||
|-
||[[Faisal bin Fahd]]||2000||{{KSA}}||
|-
||Etubom Oyo Orok Oyo||2000||{{NGA}}||
|-
||[[Nikita Simonyan]]||2000||{{RUS}}||
|-
||[[Juan Antonio Samaranch]]||2001||{{ESP}}||
|-
||José Ermírio de Moraes Filho||2002||{{BRA}}||
|-
||[[Jim Fleming (American football)|Jim Fleming]]||2002||{{CAN}}||
|-
||Mohamed Khalil El Deeb||2002||{{EGY}}||
|-
||[[Santiago Bernabéu Yeste|Santiago Bernabéu]]||2002||{{ESP}}||
|-
||[[Miljan Miljanić]]||2002||{{SRB}}||
|-
||Hans Ernst Bangerter||2002||{{SUI}}||
|-
||[[René Hüssy]]||2002||{{SUI}}||
|-
||[[Miljan Miljanić]]*||2002||{{SRB}}||
|-
||[[Johnny Warren]]||2004||{{AUS}}||Centennial Award in 2004<ref name="warren">{{cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/09/1089000355067.html |title=Global game honours fighter Warren|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=10 July 2004|access-date=20 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070428110221/http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/09/1089000355067.html|archive-date=28 April 2007|url-status=live}}</ref>
|-
||[[João Havelange]]||2004||{{BRA}}|| Centennial Award in 2004
|-
||[[Jules Rimet]]||2004||{{FRA}}|| Centennial Award in 2004
|-
||[[Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah]]||2004||{{KUW}}||
|-
||[[Jan Peters (footballer, born 1954)|Jan Peeters]]||2006||{{BEL}}||
|-
||[[Issa Hayatou]]||2006||{{CMR}}||
|-
||[[Egidius Braun]]||2006||{{GER}}||
|-
||Oscar Thamar Torres||2006||{{GUA}}||
|-
||[[Saburō Kawabuchi]]||2006||{{JPN}}||
|-
||[[Hamzah Abu Samah]]||2006||{{MAS}}||
|-
||Guyedre Wamedjo||2006||{{NCL}}||
|-
||[[Per Ravn Omdal]]||2006||{{NOR}}||
|-
||[[Kazimierz Górski]]*||2006||{{POL}}||
|-
||[[Aleksei Paramonov]]||2006||{{RUS}}||
|-
||[[Alan Rothenberg]]||2006||{{USA}}||
|-
||Nicolás Abumohor||2008||{{CHI}}||
|-
||[[Zhang Jilong]]||2008||{{CHN}}||
|-
||Isaac David Sasso Sasso||2008||{{CRC}}||
|-
||[[Nodar Akhalkatsi]]||2008||{{GEO}}||
|-
||Helen Leuthardt-Petermann||2008||{{SUI}}||
|-
||Leszek Rylski||2009||{{POL}}|| Ruby Award* <ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2015-04-07 |title=Leszek Rylski mourned |url=https://www.uefa.com/news-media/news/0220-0e9007419314-fdea1b09b53d-1000--leszek-rylski-mourned/ |access-date=2024-05-24 |website=[[UEFA]] |language=en}}</ref>
|-
||[[Lisle Austin]]||2010||{{BRB}}||
|-
||[[Holger Obermann]]||2010||{{GER}}||
|-
||Junji Ogura||2010||{{JAP}}||
|-
||[[Molefi Oliphant]]||2010||{{ZAF}}||
|-
||[[Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder]]||2012||{{GER}}||
|-
||[[György Szepesi]]||2012||{{HUN}}||
|-
||[[Ahmad Shah of Pahang]]||2012||{{MAS}}||
|-
||Godfried Foli Ekue||2012||{{TOG}}||
|}
'' *in diamond, ruby or emerald'' <ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-10-25 |title=UEFA tribute to loyal football servants – UEFA.com |url=https://www.uefa.com/news-media/news/01d7-0f85b3e8fc47-7a3a9813f01f-1000--uefa-tribute-to-loyal-football-servants/ |access-date=2024-05-24 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025151656/http://www.uefa.com/uefa/aboutuefa/organisation/congress/news/newsid=813078.html |archive-date=25 October 2012 }}</ref>

===Other individuals===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Recipient!!Year!!Nationality!!Notes
|-
||[[Roberto Marinho]]||1987||{{BRA}}||
|-
||[[Everwijn van Steeden]]||1987||{{ENG}}||
|-
||[[Emilio Azcárraga Milmo]]||1987||{{MEX}}||
|-
||Diego Lucero||1987||{{URU}}||
|-
||[[Pedro Ramírez Vázquez]]||1988||{{MEX}}||
|-
||Karl-Heinz Heimann||1992||{{GER}}||
|-
||[[Walter Kutz|Walter Lutz]]||1992||{{SUI}}||
|-
||[[Henry Kissinger]]||1996||{{USA}}||
|-
||[[Douglas Ivester]]||1996||{{USA}}||
|-
||[[Udo Jürgens]]||1996||{{GER}}||
|-
||[[Fernand Sastre]]||1998||{{FRA}}||
|-
||[[Nelson Mandela]]||1998||{{ZAF}}||
|-
||Erwin Himmelseher||2000||{{GER}}||
|-
||[[Kofi Annan]]||2002||{{GHA}}||
|-
||[[Thaksin Shinawatra]]||2004||{{THA}}||
|-
||[[Robert Louis-Dreyfus]]||2006||{{FRA}}||
|-
||[[Otto Schily]]||2006||{{GER}}||
|-
||Rudi Michel||2006||{{GER}}||
|-
||Mohammed Yusuf||2008||{{FIJ}}||
|-
||[[Alpha Oumar Konaré]]||2008||{{MLI}}||
|-
||[[Thabo Mbeki]]||2010||{{ZAF}}||
|}

===Other collectives===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Recipient!!Year!!Nationality!!Notes
|-
||[[Television]]||2004|| ||Centennial Award in 2004
|-
||[[Sheffield|The City of Sheffield]]||2004||{{ENG}}||Centennial Award in 2004
|-
||[[Football in Japan|Fans of Japan]]||2004||{{JPN}}|| Centennial Award in 2004
|-
||[[Red Devil (supporters club)|Fans of Korea]]||2004||{{KOR}}|| Centennial Award in 2004
|}

===Commercial brands===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Recipient!!Year!!Nationality!!Notes
|-
||[[Adidas]]||2004||{{GER}}|| Centennial Award in 2004
|-
||[[The Coca-Cola Company|Coca-Cola]]||2004||{{USA}}|| Centennial Award in 2004
|-
||Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive||2004||{{FRA}}|| Centennial Award in 2004
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{cite web|url=http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/r&a-awards/01/20/85/43/170490-factsheet-fifaorderofmerit(1984-2010)_neutral.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002174800/http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/r&a-awards/01/20/85/43/170490-factsheet-fifaorderofmerit(1984-2010)_neutral.pdf |archive-date=2013-10-02 |title=FIFA Fact Sheet: FIFA Order of Merit holders|publisher=[[FIFA]]|year=2010}}

{{FIFA navbox}}

[[Category:FIFA trophies and awards|Order of Merit]]
[[Category:Awards established in 1984]]
[[Category:International orders, decorations, and medals]]