Tonga Football Association has become the 100th Member Association to use the FIFA Connect ID service provided by FIFA’s Member Associations division. The FIFA Connect ID Service assigns a globally valid unique identifier (the FIFA Connect ID) to players, referees, coaches, and officials above the age of 10 registered by FIFA’s Member Associations.

It provides a digital footprint or 360-degree view on the life cycle of a person within football as well as statistical insights into football participation in general.

By using this service, Member Associations have access to a complete electronic player passport of their players, which is required to monitor the payments of training and solidarity contributions. The service also helps them to keep better track of their national players playing abroad, improves the age verification and the protection of minors, and streamlines their transfer and registration processes, making them more efficient and avoiding double entry of data. In addition, it represents an important cornerstone of the transfer reform package endorsed by the Stakeholder Committee and the FIFA Council in October last year.

The FIFA Connect ID service is provided with an electronic data exchange infrastructure allowing FIFA, the Confederations and Member Associations, as well as third party data providers to exchange data in a fully automated way, compliant with the highest data protection standards. As part of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland, FIFA’s Football Technology Innovation team will leverage the FIFA Connect ID to match electronic performance tracking data (EPTS) coming from third party suppliers and partners.

Facts and figures about football participation in the 100 Member Associations using FIFA Connect ID

To date, 92,000 people are registered as professional players in the 100 participating Member Associations. On average, 21 per cent are female, with a wide variation ranging from 0 per cent in some Member Associations to 42 per cent in the United States.

The Member Association with the highest participation rate in football is the Faroe Islands Football Association (FSF), where 10.9 per cent of the population is registered with the FSF as either player, referee, coach, or official. The average peak of registration in all MAs is at the age of 13, while about 54 per cent of all registered players are minors (below the age of 18).