The FIFA International Match Calendar (sometimes abbreviated as the FIFA Calendar or FIFA Days) is an outline agreement between

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

, the six continental football confederations, the

European Club Association The European Club Association (ECA) is a body representing the interests of professional association football clubs in UEFA. It is the sole such body recognised by the confederation, and has member clubs in each UEFA member association. It was fo ...

, and FIFPro, which sets out which dates can be used for "official" and " friendly" men's international matches. The current dates are within five windows: in March, May or June, August or September, October, and November. The match calendar also determines when international competitions such as the

AFC Asian Cup The AFC Asian Cup is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), determining the continental champion of Asia. It is the second oldest cont ...

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup ( es, Copa de Oro de la CONCACAF, french: Coupe D'or CONCACAF) is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the continental champion of North Ameri ...

OFC Nations Cup The OFC Nations Cup is an international association football tournament held among the OFC member nations. It was held every two years from 1996 to 2004; before 1996 there were two other tournaments held at irregular intervals, under the name ...

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

, and

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

can take place. Official matches have a release period of four days, which means that players can take up to four days away from club duties to partake in national team duties. If a player participates in an official match on a different continent from his club's, the release period is five days. Friendly matches are deemed less important and the release period is 48 hours. FIFA insist that official and friendly matches take precedence over domestic matches. However, they state that international friendlies that take place outside the designated dates do not.

Upcoming match windows

European Club Association dispute

The

, a union for the elite European football clubs, are unhappy with the lack of compensation given to the clubs by the international associations. At the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

, £40 million was paid to clubs as compensation. An article from ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' in February 2012 suggested that the European Club Association want a figure six times as much. The European Clubs have spoken of not agreeing to the 2014-and-onwards agreement of the FIFA calendar until the issue is resolved. The ECA president, German Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, said, "Unfortunately, discussions with the FIFA president have failed to lead to a satisfactory outcome which takes account of the clubs' demands." In March 2012, FIFA stated in a press release that Rummennigge had been invited to a summit but failed to attend.

Women's International Match Calendar

The women's international match calendar sets out which dates can be used for "official" and " friendly" women's international matches. The current dates are within six windows: in February or March, April, June or July, September, October, and November.

Upcoming match windows

European Club Association dispute

Women's International Match Calendar

Upcoming match windows

Notes

References

External links