The integration of a Member Association (MA) with the FIFA Connect ID Service consists of two main phases:
On-boarding phase – during which the MA’s National Registration System (NRS) is technically integrated with the Connect ID Service, required features are developed, and the overall setup is verified through a series of tests.
Operational phase – during which the MA’s NRS remains synchronised with the Connect ID Service and participates in ongoing data quality and maintenance activities (e.g. resolving duplicates).
On-boarding Phase
If MA decides to adopt an existing system as its NRS, the on-boarding phase will be largely simplified. Both available products - the FIFA Connect Platform (offered free of charge to MAs) and Comet (a commercial product offered by Analyticom) already meet all functional integration requirements.
The objective of the on-boarding phase is to ensure that the MA’s NRS implements all the functionalities required to correctly create and maintain the link between local and central records (covering persons, organisations, and facilities).
All relevant changes made locally in the MA’s NRS must be automatically and immediately synchronised with the Connect ID Service (for example, when a player’s date of birth is updated).
Article 01 FIFA Connect ID integration approach and checkpoints provides detailed guidance on the on-boarding process, including the quality gates established to ensure a robust and high-quality integration.
Every new NRS must go through the on-boarding phase. This also applies when an MA upgrades from an older, already integrated system. For more information, refer to the Migration to a new National Registration System (NRS) article.
Operational Phase
Once integrated, the MA enters the operational phase. The main objective here is to maintain continuous synchronisation between the MA’s NRS and the Connect ID Service, ensuring that all local operations are automatically and immediately reflected in the central system (e.g. player data updates).
The MA’s NRS must remain operational 24/7 and supply player data for deduplication and Electronic Player Passport (EPP) purposes - this is done automatically through the Connect ID Service Bus.
In addition, the MA is expected to take an active role in maintaining high data quality - primarily through duplicate resolution and data correction activities.
Operational Requirements
The key expectations for this phase are as follows:
Active participation in duplicate resolution:
The TMS Manager (or other designated staff) must have access to the DXP system and take an active role in resolving duplicates involving their MA.
Implementation of corrective actions:
When the DXP system identifies a duplicate created by the MA, the TMS Manager should apply the recommended corrections. This task may sometimes need to be delegated to the MA’s technical team.
Handling of Connect ID Notifications:
The MA must be subscribed to Connect ID Notifications and act upon them.
For example, when notified that a FIFA_ID has been merged into another, the MA must update the corresponding record in its NRS.
Notifications can be:
Manual – delivered by email and processed manually by the TMS Manager (or other designated staff), or
Automatic – delivered via the Connect ID Service Bus and processed automatically if such functionality has been implemented in the MA’s NRS.
Maintaining communication with the Clearing House (via TMS)
All communication required by the Clearing House must be continuously exchanged. Details are available in the Clearing House (TMS) integration article. Depending on the implementation, this may be an automatic or semi-automatic process. As of 2025, it is still possible for an MA to manually submit Clearing House messages via TMS as a temporary - as a workaround.