Why is FIDE listed as a FIDE federation?

Tried searching but wasn't able to find it. There's probably a good reason behind it but I don't know right now.

"There is a special category called ‘FIDE flag players’ (the Federation symbol is FID) to cover those players who are, for whatever reason, without a Federation, in order to ensure that these players can play chess in FIDE rated tournaments." - handbook.fide.com/chapter/B032015

See also en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIDE_flag_player for some more info