This edition of the Confederations Cup held in Brazil, serves as a build-up to the 2014 FIFA World Cup, also held in Brazil. The Confederations Cup will begin on June 15 to June 30 2013. Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza, Recife, and Salvador will be the six cities which will host the tournament.
From its first edition in Saudi Arabia 16 years ago, the FIFA Confederations Cup has risen in prominence to become a true celebration of football, worthy of the moniker ‘Festival of Champions.’
The FIFA Confederations Cup is an international tournament, now played every four years, featuring eight of the best soccer nations from around the world. The eight teams consist of the six reigning champions of the FIFA Confederations (UEFA, CONMEBOL, CONCACAF, CAF, AFC, OFC), the reigning FIFA World Cup champion and the host nation.
Group A:
Brazil — Host Nation
Japan — Asian Champion
Mexico — North & Central American Champion
Italy — European Runner-Up
Group B:
Spain — World Cup & European Champion
Uruguay — South American Champion
Tahiti — Oceania Champion
Nigeria — African Champion
BALL
The Adidas Cafusa is the official match ball for the tournament. The name and design of the ball symbolize the Brazilian culture of carnival, football and samba. The ball features 32 thermal panels across a seamless surface, providing a more predictable trajectory and better touch.
TROPHY
Date of manufacture: 1997 (re-designed in 2012)
Weight: 8.6 kg
Height: 40 cm
Material: Bronze, gold plated, lapis lazuli base, ebony
Description: The trophy is a reflection of the tournament's theme "Festival of Champions". It has two gold ribbons wrapped around the body in a decorative style that connects six emblems with the name of each confederation on the base. The globe is a reference to the six continents whose national teams participate in the event.
GOAL-LINE TECHNOLOGY
The use of goal-line technology will be used for the first time in a major tournament since its advent a while back. 14 high-speed cameras will be installed in each stadium to guarantee accuracy ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
2013 FIFA CONFEDERATIONS CUP IN NUMBERS
· Brazil has played in more FIFA Confederations Cups than any other team; this will be their seventh since 1997, all of them consecutive. They also claimed their FIFA Confederations Cup titles across three different continents (Saudi Arabia in 1997, Germany in 2005 and South Africa in 2009).
· Shunsuke Nakamura and Hidetoshi Nakata are the only Japanese players to have scored in two different editions of the FIFA Confederations Cup.
· Mexico are the only CONCACAF team to have won the trophy, achieving the feat as hosts in 1999 with a 4-3 win over Brazil in the final. That deciding match of the FIFA Confederations Cup 1999 generated the biggest attendance in the tournament’s history, with 110,000 spectators packing into Mexico City’s Azteca stadium on 4 August.
· Prior to their match against Haiti on Tuesday, the last match Italy played on Brazilian soil dates back to 1 July 1956, when they lost 2-0 to the host team in a friendly.
· Not less than 18 members of the Spanish squad at the FIFA Confederations Cup 2009 went on to be crowned world champions the following year in South Africa. During that 2009 campaign, the 2-0 defeat to USA in the semi-finals of the FIFA Confederations Cup 2009 ended Spain’s sequence of 35 matches undefeated.
· Uruguay’s return to the FIFA Confederations Cup comes after a 16-year absence, which coincides with the time between their last two Copa America triumphs (1995-2011).
· Tahiti is the third side to represent Oceania in the FIFA Confederations Cup, having been preceded by Australia (before their switch to the AFC in 2006) and New Zealand.
· Nigeria is one of two unbeaten teams in the history of the FIFA Confederations Cup, having won one match and drawn two. One of those stalemates took place in the match for third place, which the West Africans subsequently lost on penalties.
· If Uruguay’s Andres Scotti plays a single minute during the 2013 tournament, he would be the fourth oldest player to participate at a FIFA Confederations Cup following Tunisia’s Ali Boumnijel (39 years, two months), Germany’s Lothar Matthaeus (38 years, four months) and Japan’s Ruy Ramos (37 years, ten months).
JUST FOR FUN
If you want to be part of the Confederations Cup, in terms of the following 3 competitions, visit FIFA.
Budweiser Man of the Match
Your XI
Kick-off ball contest
… GOOD LUCK …
