IFFHS&RSSSF

The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS)

The International Federation of Football History & Statistics is an organization that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded on 27 March 1984 in Leipzig by Dr. Alfredo Pöge with the blessings of general secretary of the FIFA at the time, Dr. Helmut Käser. IFFHS was based at Al-Muroor Street 147, Abu Dhabi for some time but, in 2010, relocated to Bonn, Germany. During its early stages, and until 2002, IFFHS concentrated on publishing the quarterly magazines Fußball-Weltzeitschrift, Libero spezial deutsch and Libero international. When these had to be discontinued for reasons which were not officially told, the organization published its material in a series of multi-lingual books in co-operation with sponsors. The statistical organization has now confined its publishing activities to its website, receiving support from FIFA, organization that recognise the IFFHS and its work although the latter has no affiliation with the football's governing body.

The History of IFFHS

Dialling mode / Election regulations

I. Re-election of the Executive Committee members:

All countries whose national FA are members of FIFA are placed in continental regions. The composition of the continental regions is primarily geographic and then by performance. Each continental region has on average ten or more countries, apart from South America. The continental regions were largely match the continental football confederations, apart from Australia.

Each continental region votes for its IFFHS Executive Committee member and his deputy, independent from the IFFHS founder Dr.Alfredo Pöge, and all persons outside of that continental region. The IFFHS members of each continental region receive information (name, age, profession, media job, e-mail) of the IFFHS members of their own continental region, so they can communicate among themselves before they vote. Each IFFHS member from a continental region has to send his vote to Bonn by e-mail. The result of the vote will be published on the website www.IFFHS.de The age limit for Executive Committee members is 75 years, also they must live in the country of their nationality.

A continental region only becomes eligible when more than 50 % of the countries which belong to that continental region are represented in the IFFHS. Where the 50% threshold is achieved later, the vote can take place and the successful IFFHS Executive Committee member will admited without delay for the rest of the legislative period. Those persons voted off the Executive Committee (by means of referendum) in the European Summer (apart from Ian Garland & Igor Goldes) are excluded from this re-election to avoid manipulation.

II. Continental regions and legislative period

There are 17 continental regions: South America (2), Central America (1), North America & the Caribbean (1), Africa (3), Europe (5), Asia (4), Oceania (1). The countries belonging to each continental region are listed separately.

A legislative period last five years. After that a vote for the member of the Executive Committee and his deputy must take place in each of the 17 continental regions.

Several years of preparatory work were necessary before the IFFHS could be founded. One particular hurdle to overcome at the time was the Iron Curtain which then divided Europe into east and west, but there also were other difficulties, not least deciding how to go about everything. From the start, Dr. Alfredo Pöge was the driving force behind it. He contacted the FIFA General Secretary Dr. Helmut Käser, a very intelligent and far sighted man. Dr. Käser was fascinated by the idea of such an international federation and its goals and gave it his blessings. He did, however, recommend that things not be done in a hurry, and pointed out that such a federation would require several years of preparation and that during its first decade of existence it would be subject to harsh criticisms from others in various countries.

After FIFA gave the go-ahead, preparations were undertaken systematically and intensive discussion was conducted with football journalists from 15 countries as to the criteria for researching and documenting the history of world soccer,  whether this should be done chronologically, and the level of scientific rigour and detail required. This, in turn, required detailed consideration, as then an illogical approach and an incorrect format would have quickly jeopardised the entire project. There was no internet at the time, letters often took weeks, and personal contact every month was not possible. Thus the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) was not founded until March 27 1984 in Leipzig.

During the first few years before and after its foundation, the IFFHS received legal assistance from the renowned Danish sports law expert Prof. Dr. Lauridsen. The IFFHS was registered with the Royal Danish State Office because at the time, Danish law – unlike German law – was accepted by both the east and west sides of the Iron Curtain, indeed, worldwide. When Dr. Alfredo Pöge was elected the first president of the IFFHS, this caused great commotion in East Germany, all the more since as head of department at a large university clinic and as a recognised expert in the field of laboratory diagnostics and clinical chemistry, he received backing both from Leipzig University and from the city. In the end, though, following a showdown with the East Berlin government (sports authorities and national security), Erich Honecker, then president of East Germany, declared Dr. Afredo Pöge persona non grata. Thus, in June 1985, he and his family and IFFHS relocated from Leipzig (then East Germany) to Wiesbaden (then West Germany).

Meanwhile, IFFHS members in the various countries had begun to research the history of their country's football and the national competitions according to the criteria which had been laid down and agreed. This required years of intensive and painstaking research, as the information that could be gleaned from the football books and sports magazines was far from the accurate and detailed and authentic data that was required. This turned out to be too much for many members, who gave up and they were replaced by more qualified historians and statisticans. Even so, the number of countries where the IFFHS had a representative was growing steadily.

 Another problem was how the history of football should be published. The IFFHS was aiming the format of a technical journal, and received  start-up capital from a private company in Düsseldorf. Unfortunately, this company preferred a different format and a general direction which conflicted with the IFFHS. The technical standard of the first issues in the German-speaking area met with great acclaim, even admiration. But without the necessary advertising revenue such a magazine was unsustainable in Central Europe and the Düsseldorf company withdrew funding, leaving the IFFHS in dire straits.

 Thus, IFFHS saw itself forced to simplify its publications, lower its aims and increasingly rely on voluntary work in preparing its manuscripts. Even though its standards far surpassed those of the usual football journalism, the number of IFFHS members steadily grew, and by the end of 1987 the organisation could count on experts from almost 50 countrieson all continents.

 In 1987, Dr. Alfredo Pöge had the idea of voting annually for the world's top goalkeeper, with each country having only one vote. Sports goods manufacturer uhlsport liked the idea, and for many years was a partner and sponsor of this annual world honour. The IFFHS President was likewise able to secure over the company allzweck-sportartikel as a partner and sponsor for his suggested annual award for of the world's top referee. Both annual world honours and honours were a success from the start, are still being organised by IFFHS (now unsponsored) and have long since become well known across the globe.

 In 1988 Dr. Alfredo Pöge thought of an official poll for the world's top footballer each year, taking as a base the top footballer voted for on each continent some weeks previously. To that end, however, it was necessary to institute a vote for the top footballer in Asia and Oceania respectively, which did not exist at the time (it did on the other continents). The IFFHS succeeded in making this reality in a short time. The top.placed players from the individual continents (not always the same number) became candidates for this world poll, for which IFFHS relied on special editorial staffs (including coaches). The IFFHS president then succeeded in securing sports goods multinational adidas as a partner and sponsor. Thus, IFFHS held the first of these polls towards the end of 1988 and the beginning of 1989.

 Dr. Alfredo Pöge further conceived the idea of holding this and other awards at an annual World Football Gala, a suggestion which the German TV station RTL plus found attractive and adidas agreed to sponsor. Thus, thanks to generous sponsorship from adidas, the World's best Footballer for 1989 and 1990 was honoured on live TV at large galas in Cologne and Bonn. There were further awards,  these now coming from adidas. Then FIFA General Secretary "Sepp" Blatter, who was also present, was so impressed by the gala and the idea, that starting the following year, FIFA and adidas together conducted this voting and honour together, now under the title of  "FIFA Player".

Pending the continental confederations AFC and OFC (Asia resp. Oceania), the IFFHS continued to vote for the Asia‘s Footballer of the Year and Oceania‘s Footballer of the Year. Acting on a suggestion from FIFA, the IFFHS delegated these polls and awards to the AFC and the OFC. The IFFHS representatives in Oceania continue to support OFC with this continental voting.

 In 1990 Dr. Alfredo Pöge also thought of devising a monthly Club World Ranking and discussed the idea and what criteria might be necessary with the IFFHS members on the various continents. It was important to consider only the results of the previous 12 months because a large fluctuation in players has a  great bearing on a team's performance. It also was a prerequisite that the calculations be set up so that at the end of the year, a club from Europe and South America, assuming each won all of its matches, would both have the same number of points in the Club World Ranking. Furthermore, consideration would only be given to those club competitions held under the auspices of FIFA, its six continental confederations and nationally by the football association (no more than two competitions per country). Sponsored by the German weekly journal Bild am Sonntag in the first two years, the monthly Club World Ranking involves a lot of work  and millions of copies of it are  published. It had met with growing worldwide interest and a few years later, it was the most-published ranking list of all sports.

 IFFHS also looked closely at setting up a current ranking of countries and considered different models, including one based mainly on the performance of national teams. But the IFFHS abandoned this project, because the national teams play comparatively few matches annually, and their number also varies greatly. During a talk at the FIFA HQ in Zürich, then FIFA General Secretary "Sepp" Blatter asked about the project. When Dr. Alfredo Pöge told him that the IFFHS was no longer interested, FIFA took on this complicated issue, and beginning the following year has been publishing a monthly world ranking of the national teams (FIFA World Ranking).

In 1999 the new IFFHS statutes were reviewed by the FIFA legal division and now contain inter alia the following sections:

Foundation:
The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) was founded in Leipzig on March 27, 1984, and is registered with the Royal Danish State Office. Progress of the statutory purpose of the IFFHS is effected in correspondence according to the relevant FIFA statutes.

Goals:
The IFFHS aims at establishing a scientific chronological documentation of world football and determining authentic world records in all areas of football. Based on its universal qualification the IFFHS also organizes global votings and determines world rankings annually.

Character:
The IFFHS will brook no political, military, religious, ethnic or national influence, and in this regard follows FIFA and UNO.

FIFA/IFFHS:
The activities of IFFHS are in accordance with the efforts and guidelines of FIFA for the statistical reproduction of the world soccer. The IFFHS makes every effort to meet the above mentioned purpose by a regular, informal, special exchange of informations. This enables general and specific aspects to be covered and achieves for both sides a uniformity of all the contents.

 The IFFHS also follows sports legislation and other technical aspects where FIFA and the IFFHS must reach aconsensus, or where the IFFHS asks FIFA for advice. This cooperation is based on a strong mutual trust, and FIFA occasionally consults the IFFHS or the IFFHS forwards ideas to FIFA for the respective boards to deal with. All this is perfectly normal and, indeed, necessary if a scientific, authentic and durable database is to be created.

 But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Acting on a suggestion from Dr. Alfredo Pöge, every year since 1991, the IFFHS has determined and honoured the World's Top Goal Scorer. Only those goals are considered which were scored in full “A” internationals, final rounds of Olympic football tournaments, FIFA selection matches, as well as continental and intercontinental club championships during that year are considered. Again acting on a suggestion from its president, every year since 1997, the IFFHS has been determined the World's Top Division Goal Sscorer from the world's top 50 national leagues on all continents, also based on goals scored. The 50 top leagues are determined again, again annually, from the previous Club World Ranking.

 Also acting on a suggestion from Dr. Alfredo Pöge, every year since 1996, the IFFHS has been voting for the top coaches in the world, though not only by using a list of candidates. This is done in two categories, national coaches and club coaches, given that the priorities of these two are progessively diverging.

The IFFHS president was also successful in re-establishing the World Football Gala, which took place again in Munich in 1997. The next four years, the galas in Rotenburg an der Fulda (Hessen, Germany) were grander, in no small part thanks to generous support from the MEIROTEL chain. The World Football Galas in 1999 and 2000 were also of particular significance.

In 1999 the IFFHS, with the help of several hundred editorial staffs, realised a huge multistage milestone, namely,official  polls for the players, goalkeepers and women players of the century from all six continents, who were then invited and honoured in the presence of several members of the FIFA Executive Committee. The jurors cast their votes only for their own continent, and the 18 continental votes elicited great interest worldwide. The following year, based on a list of candidates drawn up by a global jury, the world's top footballer, goalkeeper and woman player of the centurywere voted for and honoured. Please refer to our website for more details on the results of all these votes.

 During those years when there was no World Football Gala, coaches, referees, goalkeepers and goal scorers,  were honoured in their own country. The IFFHS is greatly indebted to clubs, national football associations, TV stations, embassies and governments for support and assistance. The interest these events were accorded by the national media was remarkable. It goes without saying that the individuals who were awarded these world honours received them with great pride, not least because they enhanced their market value accordingly. All this also underscores the serious and totally  objective and impartial position of the IFFHS.

Towards the end of the 1980's, acting on a suggestion from Dr. Alfredo Pöge, the IFFHS instituted an annual vote forGerman trainer of the year and German goalkeeper of the year, the votes being cast by ex-internationals and Bundesliga and national coaches. These two polls met with great interest from the press right from the start. When, after the turn of the millennium FIFA suggested that the IFFHS keep a global focus, the IFFHS, acting on a suggestion from the DFB (the German FA), delegated these two national polls to kicker-Sportmagazin (Nuremberg).

Having published 100 magazines and 15 books, the IFFHS has contributed to the setting of new standards across Europe, also by motivating national sports publishers to better document their reports better and give higher priority to statistics. By emulating the standard of publications in the natural and related sciences, sports magazines have taken a first step in the right direction. In the process, it is inevitable that the IFFHS publications,, which are based on authenticated data, reveal all the errors and misinformation which for many years have been repeated in sports magazines, in yearbooks and by reporters in many countries. Naturally, there were some who were not happy with this, but the IFFHS has never strayed from its course. Things did, of course, change in a fundamental way once the IFFHS went online.

 Regrettably, IFFHS has been plagued by financial worries again and again, lost several partners and sponsors over a period of decade which in despite of their great scope went insolvent. The resulting problems required at times great personal sacrifice by some of the IFFHS Executive Committee members and their friends. Nevertheless, all IFFHS members were exemplary and they continued their work, unpaid as it was. Even before the turn of the millennium, IFFHS had members in about a hundred countries.

 After 15 years of hard work and many sacrifices, the IFFHS has earned worldwide renown, with sports journalists and the media increasingly coming to the realisation that the IFFHS is no opponent, but a federation which has much to offer to people all over the world, and which produces authentic data, information and records which are useful for everybody's work. This is something to which the internet has contributed in no small measure. The IFFHS was given its first opportunity by ZDF, Europe's largest TV station under public law, and then set up its own website with support from BV Borussia Dortmund.

In order to give sports journalists, clubs, associations, fans and others all over the world who may be interested all over the world a better insight into its activities – and results – the IFFHS has greatly expanded its website and concentrated on this type of medium. The decentralised modus operandi of the IFFHS was likewise important since members can only undertake research in their own countries and sources often turn up only after long and costly searches. The reason for this is that information posted on the web, current sport magazines and yearbooks often contain no authenticated or insufficient data which goes back a decade, half a century, sometimes even a whole century.

 With its internet partner 7DC (Seven Dead Cats), the IFFHS rebuilt its website in four languages (http://www.IFFHS.de) in 2005, regarding both the technical aspect and the content. This was also done with sports journalists in mind, as they operate under a permanent deadline and require quick access to the information they need. This comprehensive website is continually being expanded, offers authenticated data in a chronological format while  maintaining the same high standard. Thus the world stands to gain, and the IFFHS comes a little closer to doing the task it has originally set itself.

Quite a few members of the Executive Committee have played football themselves. Dr. Alfredo Pöge, who scored many goals during his 30 years as an amateur player, now heads 200 IFFHS members from 120 countries, understands the reasons behind the different stages of development in the various regions of the world. It was, after all, thanks to special circumstances that he came into contact with football literature at an early age and had the opportunity to expand this knowledge about the 20th century internationally. He is a perfectionist, categorically rejects illogical thinking and believes that the more one delves into something, the less one knows. Even though he conceived many key ideas, he sees himself as only a part of the IFFHS and eschews a personality cult of any sort. His daily work for the IFFHS is more important to him than providing interviews. Not a few see "Dr. Don Alfredo" as Europe's last idealist, but under his organisational and technical skill, the IFFHS has grown to what is has now become With a little more financial support, the IFFHS would have progressed even further, for the greater good of worldwide football.

For more than a decade, IFFHS members have applied themselves with great passion and sacrifice to determine football history during the 19th century worldwide according to certain criteria, especially regarding full "A" internationals, national championships and national cup competitions. Not only did they sift through contemporary sports reports in newspapers, yearly reports and books as well as club books and brochures which were published later, they also had help from the authorities in determining the date of birth, place of residence, degree of kinship, etc. of the footballers active during the 19th century. First names were not much used by the press in 19th-century Great Britain, mostly first initials or, if a player was well known, a diminutive or nickname, though this did not always allow a correct inference as to what the actual first name really was. An added complication was that some countries simply did not keep civil registers.

 Thus was IFFHS able not only to offer authentic documentation on its website, it also made it possible to lay the basis for determining all sorts of world records as well as chronicling the development of a great variety of records. Nothing can last without the proper groundwork, and if millions of copies are printed. Over the past 13 months, the football history of the 19th century has been posted on the IFFHS website for each season in each country with hundreds of historical photographs, and a number of records determined for full  "A"  internationals (55), national championships (28) and national cup competitions (16). This website is constantly being updated in the unending search for historical photographs and the quest to fill in the missing statistics (as for the Scottish Cup). These small additions (e.g., minutes of goals, first names of players) will have no bearing on the records.

 The texts on the full "A" internationals, national championships and national cup competitions include short biographiesof more than a hundred footballers from the 19th century as well as many other interesting and curious facts. The website also contains a chapter (VIII) with brief curiosities sorted by year. Those for the 1872-1900 period have already been posted.

 Those readers who are interested in any of the various national football histories and other topics can e-mail IFFHS for a list of the publications (books and magazines) which we still have in stock. Most of the books are in four languages (English, Spanish, French and German), the other books and the magazines are only in German.

 In January 2007 IFFHS will begin posting documentation of the first decade of the 20th century. This will include all countries worldwide which played full "A" internationals and held national championships and cup competitions. Starting with this period, documentation will also include the Olympic football. About 90% of the work is done already.

 In 2006 IFFHS started posting on Chapter IX of its website a photo documentation of its national, continental andglobal awards since 1987. The documentation for 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1898 and 2005 has already been posted. Pictures of the century awards as well as 2006 and 1999 will be posted next. Photo documentation of the years in between will be added gradually.

 Acting on a suggestion by its president Dr. Alfredo Pöge and vice-president Jørgen Nielsen, IFFHS started its yearlyworld playmaker award in 2006 to give greater recognition to the creativity of offensive players. Anyone who has played football knows the enormous charisma of these players and the effectiveness which it conveys to the team as a whole. The current trend towards all-rounders and standardised players is very bad for football.

 Below you will find pictures of those IFFHS members who made a substantial contribution to documenting the history of football in the 19th century which is posted on this website.

The IFFHS members in the individual countries have recorded the full "A" internationals, the Olympic tournaments, the national championships and the national cup competition of the football associations for the 1st Decade of the 20th Century to a very high standard (text, statistics, photos), with much passion, great expertise as well as considerable expenditure of time and expense - and through mutual support. In addition, more than two hundred short biographies of players, referees and coaches for this period (1901-1910) were written, as well as summary contributions for the individual categories; and 80 curious facts were discovered.

As a result of this work it has been possible to expand the hundred different world records as well as its rankings and developments from 1871 to 1910. The editing of all of these contributions (texts) was made by the IFFHS President, who also wrote the final version in the German language. From this a translation was made into the English language and then into Spanish and French. The work of the very capable external translators Dr. Alejandro Rodón (English), Francisco Hernández Flor (Spanish) and Stéphane Lach (French) has been distinguish by a high level of expertise and complete in accordance with the IFFHS’s requirements. Short topical texts were translated by the Executive Committee members Dr. Alfredo Pöge (German), Ian Garland (English), José del Olmo (Spanish) and Robert Ley (French).

With two exceptions (the Paraguayan championship and the Holdert Cup of the Netherlands – which are being worked on), all of above mentioned work from the 1st Decade has been published on our website. In addition this website includes the total authentic global documentation from 1871-1910. The IFFHS is grateful to 7DC GmbH (Dortmund) for the technical aspects of the website and the preparation of the photos. But the preparation and input of the texts, statistics, rankings, tables and photos in the website were always undertaken by the IFFHS.

At the same time IFFHS members from all the appropriate countries worked with great vigour to the same parameters (without payment!) on the 2nd Decade of the 20th Century. More than 90% of the required texts, statistics and photos for this period 1911-1920 have been edited and prepared in the German version. We hope that we can complete the missing information by the end of 2010. Afterwards it will be possible to can extend all records and world rankings from 1871 to 1920.

This particular decade presented a high degree of difficulty, above all because of the World War I, but also as result of events immediately before and after the conflict. Once this task is completed the IFFHS can present on its website an authentic and diverse documentation of the first 50 years (1871-1920) of the world football. This 2nd Decade contains much information about the regional competitions of those countries, and a period during which no national competitions took place. Many short biographies, curiosities and photos will also be prepared for period 1911-1920.

During the past two years the IFFHS has added to the photo documentation relating to the annual awards / World Football Gala. This was supplemented by those remaining three years of the 1990s. The IFFHS is grateful to the continental confederations, national football associations, clubs and leading national sport newspapers for supplying many photos. For the preparation of the photos for the documentation of this complex the IFFHS has to again thank 7DC. In the coming years the IFFHS has the task of continuing this photo documentation and providing supplements for missing years of 2001-2004.

Because of the considerable expenditure of time required in several countries to work out the full "A" internationals, national championships and cup competitions for the 2nd Decade, the IFFHS has in parallel worked on the Mitropa Cup (1927-1940). The documentation of the most important club competition in the world in the first half-year of the 20th Century was completed with text in four languages and full statistics for each match as well as many photos and 33 records (including rankings). The publication of the Mitropa Cup on the website began at the end of August.

As a results of the efforts of the IFFHS to arrange the World Football Gala (in which the annual awards by  IFFHS in each of nine categories take place), the IFFHS President and the two Vice Presidents came to the conclusion that it is no longer viable to be organized internally. The ex-FIFA referee and former FIFA General Secretary and qualified lawyer Michel Zen Ruffinen, managed in spite of short preparation time and many difficulties to arrange a World Football Gala 2010 in London (see photo documentation in champter IX).

The IFFHS decided in 2009 – after detailed consideration and requests of all continents over previous years – through Dr.Alfredo Pöge to create an uniform modus vivendi for clubs across all continents and devising continental club rankings of the 20th Century. These were subsequently published. The results received a great response worldwide and uniform approval, also because there were clear winners in all continents. All six continental winners accepted the IFHHS’s invitation and were please to be honoured at the World Football Gala in London (see chapter IX, 2010 III).

But the IFFHS has not only success to report. The Gala marking the 25th anniversary of the IFFHS in March 2009 fell victim to the global financial crisis 2008/2009 and the IFFHS’s financial situation. The IFFHS is also clear about its future global role which it will strongly seek to fulfil, without regard to outside influences. In the 2nd half of 2010 the IFFHS will begin the publication of the 2nd Decade (1911-1920), and then continue work on the recording the 3rd Decade (1921-1930). Also will be of worldwide interest some surprises.

On the historical field the year 2011 has run for the IFFHS as expected, a large part of the full "A" internationals of the 2nd decade (1911-1920) has already been published and tche rest is ready for publication. On the same ground the elaboration of the following decade, regarding the almost 50 nations involved, will continue. In the topical field the decade’s winners and the rankings of the world best referees, national coaches, goalkeepers, goal scorers, national leagues and the club world ranking will be ascertained for the first time in the world. Regarding the clubs, the decade rankings of the single continents will also be calculated. It was also good that, thanks to 7DC, the presentations of the photos of events, votes and rankings and the awards ceremonies in chapter IX are now visible through modern photo galleries

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Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF)

RSSSF is amateur organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aim to build an exhaustive archive of football related-information from around the World.  It was originally founded as NERSSSF (for Northern European Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation) in January 1994 by three regular contributors to the rec.sport.soccer newsgroup, namely, in alphabetical order, Lars Aarhus, the maintainer of a fabulous archive on Norwegian football, Kent Hedlundh, the organiser of the annual "RSS-Player of the Year" vote, and Karel Stokkermans, once regular poster of scores from (mostly) Eastern European leagues, and current maintainer of the RSSSF Archive. In the beginning of December 1994, we were joined by the then DSFS Vice President and maintainer of the ultimate WWW-page on German football, Bernd Timmermann. 

Since December 1994, RSSSF have been making league tables and all other kind of statistical information on football and its history, which we have been collecting for years, available through this archive - first announced onrec.sport.soccer.

The URL was improved in steps; the first address change was announced in 1997 and since spring 2000 the archive is located at http://www.rsssf.com/archive.html.

Since the introduction of this WWW-page, RSSSF membership has dramatically increased, as can be seen from the list below. Clearly the restriction to a specific region had to be dropped, so the name has been shortened to simply RSSSF, the "Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation". The first four members were joined by Søren Florin Elbech, organizer of the first In Real Life Meeting on May 18, 1997, to form the "Board", which decides on applications for membership and such issues.

At the end of October 1998, the Danish branch of RSSSF became Dansk Boldspil-Unions Officielle Leverandør af Statistisk Materiale; it can now also be found as: danskfodbold.com.

In July 2000, a further 'local' section was formed with RSSSF Brazil.

RSSSF’s major goal is collecting all kind of statistics, in particular league tables from all over the world, on football, and making this information available to those sharing its interest. Moreover, those statistics should be as reliable as possible, which means that its ultimate goal is to have correspondents from (and better yet in) the countries involved.

New members are therefore in principle welcome if:

• they can provide continuous coverage of as yet uncovered competitions;
• they can ensure correctness of their data.

The RSSSF Board currently consists of Karel Stokkermans (President), Kent Hedlundh (Vice-President), Lars Aarhus (Secretary General), Bernd Timmermann (Public Relations Manager), and Søren Florin Elbech (Chancellor of the Exchequer). Mike Raney assists Bernd and Søren in their tasks as RSSSF's Liaison Officer.