Criticism
Given the fact that the IFFHS was not created by a committee of national bodies linked to Football or the compilation of statistics related to this sport, the use of the words "federation" and "international" in its name is misleading about the origin and nature of this organization. This is in contrast with the case of FIFA, which was created by an initial group of eight national associations (those of Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Sweden), progressively incorporating other countries until reaching the current membership of 209 associations.
In some cases continental football bodies are at odds with IFFHS statistics. The South American Football Federation (CONMEBOL), for example, recently ranked Ecuadorian Liga de Quito and Brazilian Internacional as first and second above third-placed Club Universidad de Chile in the pan-South America rankings. In comparison, the IFFHS ranked Quito and Internacional in 54th and 36th place respectively.
Karl Lennartz, a soccer expert and professor at the University of Cologne, Germany, calls the organization "obscure", describing it as a one man show of its chairman Alfredo Pöge.
Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), Germany's largest press agency, refuses to publish stories involving IFFHS statistics.
Read more about this topic: International Federation Of Football History & Statistics
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“The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)