inWhatLanguage and FIFA: a team for posterity

Translating for FIFA is much more than a regular translation project: it is an honor. iWL was selected to work on specialized documents in preparation for the World Cup – and the results have granted the young translation agency the praise of the biggest football association in the world!

For any professional translation agency, there is always that “moment of truth” when it has to prove that it really is all that it promises to be - that it can really work with huge volumes, or that it can deliver expert translations with the quality and accuracy that it guarantees. Big words must be reflected in big results, and not all projects offer the chance for this to happen.

But thanks to FIFA, such a “moment of truth” came for inWhatLanguage.

It all started in October 2013, when the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) selected iWL after a two-month competitive process against 15 other preselected translation companies to translate all of its PR communications in preparation for the World Cup. From that point until the actual World Cup in Brazil took place, we worked on website content, magazines and print media, as well as news and press releases in more than 20 languages.

An “intimidating and overwhelming task”, in the words of actual FIFA representatives; a real Goliath of a translation project, admittedly, but one that inWhatLanguage was more than ready to undertake.

The intricacies of project management

“Working with FIFA has helped catapult inWhatLanguage to a higher level of customer interest,” says inWhatLanguage CEO Cody Broderick. “It has also validated questions from potential clients about our technical and volume capabilities.”

Certainly, managing this project has not been a walk in the park: it involved huge amounts of diverse and extremely technical content. This required a careful selection of professional and football-expert native translators, as well as constant quality control measures to make sure that the documents were delivered correctly, on time and with the right format.

But the effort has been absolutely worth it, according to Broderick: “We now use FIFA as a case study when engaging some of the top organizations in the world to prove that, if FIFA selected inWhatLanguage, they should do so as well. I’m confident we will get more volume from them as the sport picks up momentum for upcoming games.”

Positive feedback: our most valuable reward

Maybe it is too soon to predict iWL’s future with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, but there is one thing that we know for sure: FIFA was very satisfied with the addition of the young translation company to its ranks.

“inWhatLanguage proved to be fantastic partner as we worked hand-in-hand to translate hundreds of documents in over 20 languages – all on time and under budget. Thank you, inWhatLanguage!" This was the feedback we got from FIFA once the project came to an end - right when we were all at the edge of our seats, absorbed in the magic of the actual World Cup games, knowing that a little part of that amazing event had been possible thanks to the good work of iWL.