The Confederations Cup is a moderately new FIFA tournament. The tournament can be enlightened as a miniature FIFA World Cup. The top team of each alliance participates including the host and the current World Cup champion.
The FIFA Confederations Cup can be measured as a dress-rehearsal for the World Cup it precedes. Around half of the World Cup stadiums will be used, and gives the host nation, which qualifies for the Confederations Cup automatically, skill at a elevated level of contest during 2 years of playing friendlies only. The 10th Confederations Cup will kick-off on June 17 2017 and the final will be played on July 2 2017. Host Country Russia and Host Cities: Kazan, Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Sochi.
Origin
The tournament was first named the King Fahd Cup and was planned and hosted in Saudi Arabia. King Fahd refers to the then king of Saudi Arabia Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. After the first 2 tournaments in 1992 and 1995, FIFA took over the tournament and named it the Confederations Cup.
In the first Confederations Cup when it was still called the King Fahd Cup, there were 4 participants: Saudi Arabia, United States, Argentina and Ivory Coast. Argentina won the 1992 tournament by defeating Saudi Arabia with 3-1. This was the only Confederations Cup which excludes South American and European countries.
Winners of FIFA Confederations Cup:
Most Winners:
- Brazil: 4 (1997, 2005, 2009, 2013)
- France: 2 (2001, 2003)
- Mexico: 1 (1999)
Qualification system
The eight contending teams will be the host nation, the reigning FIFA World Cup champions, and the six holders of the FIFA confederation championships. If any team qualifies for multiple births (such as, if the World Cup champions also won their continental championship), the next best-placed team from their continental championship qualifies.
Between 1992 and 2005 the FIFA Confederations Cup was hosted every 2 years. This changed after the 2005 tournament when FIFA decided to host this ‘small version of the World Cup’ in the year before the preceding World Cup. So after 2005 it took 4 years before another Confederations Cup saw the light of day.
Since its very continuation, the champions of the major continental tournaments qualify for the Confederations Cup. The biggest tournaments are:
- South America: Copa América
- North/Central America: CONCACAF Gold Cup
- Europe: UEFA European Championship
- Asia: AFC Asian Cup
- Africa: Africa Cup of Nations
- Oceania: OFC Nations Cup
Qualified teams of 2017
- The following teams have qualified for the tournament.
- Russia; as 2018 FIFA World Cup hosts
- Germany; as 2014 FIFA World Cup winners
- Australia; as 2015 AFC Asian Cup winners
- Chile; 2015 Copa América winners
- Portugal; UEFA Euro 2016 winners
- Mexico; 2015 CONCACAF Cup winners
- New Zealand; as 2016 OFC Nations Cup winners
- 2017 Africa Cup of Nations winners; 5 February 2017
The World Cup champion and host nation qualify by design. If the World Cup champion is champion of one of the continental tournaments above, the runners-up of that continental tournament qualifies for the Confederations Cup as well.
Confederations Cup 2013 champion
Conclusion
The present champion of the FIFA Confederations Cup is Brazil (2013). The team beat Spain with 3-0 in the 2013 Final. Brazil is also the most victorious FIFA Confederations Cup team; they won the tournament 4 times: in 1997, 2005, 2009 and 2013. The current all-time top scorers of the tournament are former Mexican player Cuauhtémoc Blanco and former Brazilian player Ronaldinho with 9 goals each.
