The FIFA Order of Merit is the highest honour awarded by FIFA. The award is presented at the annual FIFA congress. It is normally awarded to people who are considered to have made a significant contribution to association football.
At FIFA's centennial congress they made one award for every decade of their existence. These awards were also handed out to fans, organisations, clubs, and one to African Football. These were referred to as the FIFA Centennial Order of Merit.
The winner doesn't have to be directly involved with football to receive it. One such notable non-footballing personality was Nelson Mandela who won it for bringing South Africa back to international football.
Famous quotes containing the words order and/or merit:
“Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art. Even more. It is the revenge of the intellect upon the world. To interpret is to impoverish, to deplete the world—in order to set up a shadow world of “meanings.””
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“Merit at Courts, without favour, will do little or nothing; favour, without merit, will do a good deal; but favour and merit together will do everything.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)