The World Freestyle Football Association (WFFA) is the international

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ge ...

freestyle football Freestyle football is the art of juggling a football using any part of the body, excluding the elbows to the hands. It combines football tricks, dance, acrobatics and music to entertain onlookers and compete with opponents. The official governin ...

. Freestyle football is defined as an art and sport, which involves participants creatively juggling a ball using all parts of the body to entertain audiences and outperform opponents; it combines street culture of

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

tricks,

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

acrobatics Acrobatics () is the performance of human feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. Acrobatic skills are used in performing arts, sporting events, and martial arts. Extensive use of acrobatic skills are most often performed in acro ...

and

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

Organisation

The WFFA develops and manages the ''Official World Rankings System'', the ''World Freestyle Day'' (held annually on 1 September), all rules and regulations of official WFFA competitions, and the key WFFA events across the calendar. The WFFA is a non-profit organisation, headquartered in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Membership

The organisation operates throughout 114 countries (as of January 2019) with the mission of growing awareness and participation in the sport of freestyle football for both

male Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...

and females of all ages. The ambition for the sport to be used as a tool for positive social change in communities worldwide. The Key Leaders in each country have a role to play in the overall governance of the sport, by casting votes on any rule changing matters and contributing new ideas to grow the sport in their regions. The structure and worldwide network for the sport has been in development since 2007.

Events

WFFA football events can be ''Open'' or ''Closed'' events. All Open-events (National, Continental and World) allow participants to score World Ranking points, whilst all Closed-events are invitation-only for pre-qualified or elite athletes. Events can take place live or online. Events annually receive over 200 million engagements online and connect to audience across the world through social media platforms like

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, and

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. The key events in the freestyle football calendar include: *Super Ball,

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. *Panther Ball, Torreon,

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. *Freestyle Football World Masters. *Red Bull Street Style World Finals. *Women's Freestyle League. *European Freestyle Football Championship. *Asia-Pacific Freestyle Football Championship. *South American Freestyle Football Championship. *North American Freestyle Football Championship. *African Freestyle Football Championship. *National WFFA Championships in all countries.

Ambassadors

In 2014,

Ronaldinho Ronaldo de Assis Moreira (born 21 March 1980), commonly known as Ronaldinho Gaúcho () or simply Ronaldinho, is a Brazilian retired professional footballer who played mostly as an attacking midfielder, but was also deployed as a winger. Wide ...

joined WFFA as a global ambassador. More celebrity names from the worlds of football, music, and entertainment have also shown their support for Freestyle Football at events.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official Website
Association football terminology Association football governing bodies International sports organizations Sports organizations of Canada Sports organizations established in 2017 2017 establishments in Ontario