The competitions represented by the newly displayed trophies and medals

The FIFA U-20 World Cup Trophy, FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Trophy, FIFA U-17 World Cup Trophy and FIFA U-17Women’s World Cup Trophy (left to right) in the showcase at the FIFA Museum. | © FIFA Museum
The FIFA U-20 World Cup Trophy, FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Trophy, FIFA U-17 World Cup Trophy and FIFA U-17Women’s World Cup Trophy (left to right) in the showcase at the FIFA Museum. | © FIFA Museum

With the opening of the FIFA World Cup Gallery extension, the FIFA Museum now has ten additional trophies and three Olympic medals on display. They represent the wide range of tournaments hosted by FIFA, or in the case of the Olympic Games, organised by FIFA.

Sure, every child knows the FIFA World Cup™ and the FIFA Women's World Cup™. The other tournaments, however, also thrill millions of football fans worldwide. Let’s take a brief look at their respective histories.

FIFA U-20 World Cup™
FIFA's oldest youth competition was first played in Tunisia in 1977 under the name FIFA World Youth Championship. The tournament, which has been called the FIFA U-20 World Cup™ since 2007, takes place every two years. In its history, all six continents have hosted the tournament at least twice. However, the title has only ever gone to South America or Europe, with one exception. The only participant not from one of these two continents and still managed to become world champion was the team from Ghana, which secured the title in 2009. The most successful teams are Argentina with six titles and Brazil with five. In Europe, on the other hand, the titles are much more spread out. With the exception of Portugal, who were able to defend their 1989 title in 1991, no team managed to get on the winners' list more than once.

FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup™
The first of FIFA's youth tournaments for women was held in Canada in 2002. In the final, the team from USA defeated the hosts from Canada with a golden goal. The tournament, which is held every two years like the men's competition, has subsequently been dominated by three countries: After their inaugural victory in 2002, the USA also secured the title in 2008 and 2012 and are joint record holders with Germany, who were victorious in 2004, 2010 and 2014. The remaining three world titles have been won by the North Koreans (2006 and 2016) and Japanese (2018). The first two editions of the competition in 2002 and 2004 were held as U-19 tournaments. For the third edition in 2006, the age limit was raised by one year and since played as a U-20 tournament.

The FIFA U-17 World Cup Trophy (left) and FIFA U-17Women’s World Cup Trophy in the showcase at the FIFA Museum. | © FIFA Museum
The FIFA U-17 World Cup Trophy (left) and FIFA U-17Women’s World Cup Trophy in the showcase at the FIFA Museum. | © FIFA Museum (click to enlarge)

FIFA U-17 World Cup™
Like the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup™, the FIFA U-17 World Cup™ started with a different age limit than today. The first three editions between 1985 and 1989 were held as U-16 tournaments. At the very first tournament in China in 1985, Nigeria not only won the very first World Cup title for Africa, but also laid the foundation for the consistently good performance of African teams at this competition. Nigeria itself is the current record winner with five titles. Yet also Ghana won the tournament twice. These seven titles make Africa the most successful continent in this competition. With the exception of Oceania, at least one country from each confederation has won the U-17 World Cup.  

FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup™
While the men's U-17 World Cup has been dominated by African teams, most of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup™ titles have gone to Asia. The newest of FIFA's four youth World Cups was first held in New Zealand in 2008. The tournament is also held every two years. Four of the six titles so far have been won by Asian teams: Korea DPR, Korea Republic and Japan. The North Koreans are the first, and currently the only ones to win the title twice. They achieved this at the 2016 tournament, which also made history for a second reason: it took place in Jordan and was the first time a global women's competition was held in the Arab world. In its comparatively short history, 32 teams from all six continents have already taken part in the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. Six of these teams - Korea DPR, Japan, Germany, Ghana, Canada and New Zealand - have yet to miss a tournament.  

The FIFA Futsal World Cup Trophy (left) and FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Trophy in the showcase at the FIFA Museum. | © FIFA Museum
The FIFA Futsal World Cup Trophy (left) and FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Trophy in the showcase at the FIFA Museum. | © FIFA Museum (click to enlarge)

FIFA Futsal World Cup™
Of the 50 teams that have participated at the FIFA Futsal World Cup™ so far, only four have managed to win the title. The record holder with five titles is the team from Brazil. Together with Spain, who have been world champions twice so far, they have won the first seven editions of the FIFA Futsal World Cup. The two most recent world champions are Argentina, who triumphed in 2016, and Portugal, who secured the title at the most recent edition in 2021. With Brazil, Spain and Argentina, all teams that have participated in all nine finals have also won the title at least once. In fourth place in terms of participations, comes the team from Iran, which has been to the tournament eight times. Its best finish was 3rd place in 2016 in Colombia.

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup™
The world-famous Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, hosted the first three editions of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup™ as of 2005. It had already hosted seven world beach soccer tournaments in previous years. Although Brazil has always been a power in beach soccer, the host nation failed to win the first tournament organised by FIFA in 2005. In France's only victory at a beach soccer world cup to date, Brazil only managed to place third. However, afterwards the Brazilians went on a winning streak and won the title four times in a row until 2009. The winning streak was interrupted by Russia. The Russians won their first of three titles in 2011. With Portugal winning in 2015 and 2019 a fourth nation was added to the list of beach soccer world champions. The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, which is now held every two years, offers smaller nations the opportunity to showcase themselves as participants and hosts. Like the tournaments held in Tahiti in 2013 and in the Bahamas in 2017. Tahiti was also able to impress on the pitch and has made it to the final twice so far, in 2015 and 2017.

FIFA Club World Cup™
The FIFA Club World Cup™ is an annual competition between club champions from all continents. The unofficial predecessor of the tournament, which has been held annually since 2005 after an interlude in Brazil in 2000, dates back to the 1960s, when the winners of the CONMEBOL Libertadores and the European Cup played each other. Since FIFA has been organising the tournament, representatives of all confederations have traditionally taken part. The first three editions in 2000, 2005 and 2006 were all won by Brazilian teams. Since then, European teams have dominated the competition. Apart from the 2012 edition, where Corinthians of Sao Paulo were victorious, a team from Europe has triumphed every year. The record winner is the Spanish top club Real Madrid, which has won the title four times so far.

The Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup, FIFA Confederations Cup Trophy and the FIFA Arab Trophy (left to right) in the showcase at the FIFA Museum. | © FIFA Museum
The Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup, FIFA Confederations Cup Trophy and the FIFA Arab Trophy (left to right) in the showcase at the FIFA Museum. | © FIFA Museum (click to enlarge)

Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup™
The history of the Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup™ goes back to 1939, when the Zurich football club FC Blue Stars organised the youth club tournament for the first time. The tournament quickly gained a solid reputation at national and soon also international level and was held every spring without interruption until 2019. In 2020 and 2021, the tournament was cancelled due to the corona pandemic. FIFA has organised the tournament since 1991, and women's teams have been included since the 80th anniversary in 2019. The list of participants reads like a who's who of international club football: among others, the Spanish top clubs Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, Juventus Turin, Bayern Munich, River Plate and Boca Juniors have already taken part. Later superstars such as David Beckham, Kaká or Pep Guardiola also shone with their presence. The record winner with 18 titles is Manchester United.

FIFA Confederations Cup™
Part of the display is also the trophy of a tournament that no longer exists. The FIFA Confederations Cup™ was first held in Saudi Arabia in 1992, at that time under the name Intercontinental Championship for the King Fahd Cup. After the second edition in 1995, the tournament was then renamed the FIFA Confederations Cup in 1997. With the new name, a new tournament format was introduced. The field of participants now consisted of the respective continental champions, the reigning world champion and the host. The first title under the new name and new format was won by the Brazilians in 1997. Until 2005, the FIFA Confederations Cup was held every two years. After that, every four years, always one year before the FIFA World Cup with the host nation always being the same as for the following FIFA World Cup. The last edition took place in Russia in 2017. The record winner of the FIFA Confederations Cup, with four titles, is the Brazilian national team, which after 1997 also won in 2005, 2009 and 2013.

FIFA Arab Cup™
The first FIFA Arab Cup™ was held in Qatar in November and December 2021. This makes it the youngest tournament to be organised by FIFA. However, its roots go back to te 1960s. In 1963, five national teams from Arab countries met in Lebanon to play out an Arab Champion. The tournament was won by the team from Tunisia. After two more tournaments in 1964 and 1966, both won by Iraq, there was an almost 20-year break before the tournament series was resumed in 1985. Five more editions followed until 2012, and Iraq won four of the nine tournaments held during that time. Saudi Arabia triumphed twice, Morocco once. In 2021, the tournament was then organised by FIFA for the first time - as a dress rehearsal for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™. After a 2-0 extra-time victory over Tunisia in the final, the Algerian team became the first country to lift the new trophy.

Olympic Games Football Tournament Medals. IOC Culture & Heritage Collections – Artefacts
Olympic Games Football Tournament Medals. IOC Culture & Heritage Collections – Artefacts (click to enlarge)

Olympic Football and Futsal Tournaments
Football is a sport with a very long Olympic tradition. It made its debut as a demonstration sport at the second edition of the modern Olympic Games in 1900. It has been an official Olympic discipline since the 1908 Games in London. What many people don't know is that the men's tournament has been organised directly by FIFA since 1924. This makes it the oldest competition organised by FIFA. Since 1992, the tournament has been restricted to U-23 players. Not so with the women. There, football has been part of the Olympics since the 1996 Games in Atlanta. There is no age restriction here. Football has also been part of the programme at the Youth Olympic Games since 2010. However, in 2018, both the women's and men's games switched to futsal. The Olympic medals on display in the museum are on loan from the IOC Culture & Heritage Collections.

 

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