‘FIFA Basic’ has been launched as the lowest standard of the FIFA Quality Programme which sets industry standards for football products.
The FIFA Quality Programme sets standards for products such as playing surfaces, equipment and football technology.
‘FIFA Basic’ sits behind ‘FIFA Pro’ and FIFA Quality Pro’. FIFA believes that the new standard will boost football development.
The ‘FIFA Basic’ standard focuses on cost efficiency, durability and safeguarding player safety.
The ‘FIFA Quality’ standard products meet the standard for community and amateur level sport while ‘FIFA Quality Pro’ products meet the benchmarks for professional football.
FIFA’s Quality Programme Conference and Research Symposium was held for the third time recently and was centred on the presentation of the new standard. More than 400 representatives from the football industry, major leagues, and confederations and associations attended the seminar.
“The event offered an important exchange with industry representatives, the football world and the research community on global standards and new developments. Even more important was the opportunity to hear about the industry’s challenges in these challenging times and to discuss possible solutions,” FIFA Director of Football Technology & Innovation, Johannes Holzmüller said about the conference.
“The introduction of the new FIFA Basic quality category and the FIFA Innovation Programme will have a positive impact by making products more affordable and adaptable for all levels of the game.”
Other initiatives were also introduced at the seminar – a new Quality Programme for Football Goals was also presented. Guidelines for natural turf and floodlighting are being developed in this area.
The FIFA Innovation Programme was also announced, which is aimed at new football products coming onto the market.
“The FIFA Innovation Programme, which creates a transparent and uniform process through which new products must pass in order to be approved within a fixed period of time and with clearly defined objectives,” FIFA said in a media release on its website.
On the FIFA Football Technology website, the FIFA Quality Programme has information about the football products it sets standards for from footballs, pitches, VAR, goal line technlgies to futsal surfaces and products.