The Confederation cup is a tournament that precede the FIFA World cup, its usually hosted by the country to host the FIFA World cup the next year. The tournament is used to test run all the facilities that are to be used during the official World cup.
The tournament is played by the Champions of every Continent and the current winner of the previous FIFA World cup in this case the 2012 World cup, but the host country qualifies automatically.
The 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup will be held in Brazil in 2013, as a prelude to the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The tournament is expected to be held from 15 to 30 June 2013. Brazil are the defending champions.
As the competition partially overlaps with the fourth round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification in Asian zone, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) asked FIFA to consider a change of date However, the AFC decided that the match day will be adjusted only for Japan, the representative of AFC for the Confederations Cup.
The 2013 edition of the competition will be held in six major cities in Brazil which includes
1. Belo Horizonte. The matches are to be played inside the Estádio Governador Magalhães Pinto
(Mineirão)with a Planned capacity of 62,547
2. Recife, which has the newly construted stadium Arena Pernambuco with a Planned capacity of 44,248
3. Brasília which has the 70,064 capacity Estádio Nacional de Brasília (Estádio Nacional) staduim.
4. The famous city of Rio de Janeiro, with the Estádio Mário Filho (Maracanã) with a Planned capacity of 76,804 being the venue for the matches in the city.
5. Fortaleza, with Estádio Plácido Aderaldo Castelo(Castelão) of Planned capacity 64,846 being the venue for the matches in the city.
6. The City of Salvador being the final selected city with a stadium of a planned capacity of 48,747(Arena Fonte Nova – Octávio Mangabeira)
The tournament will consits of eight teams grouped into two Group A and Group B with Brazil the Host and defending Champions in Group A and Spain world Champion in group B. The remaining six teams will be drawn on the 1st of December, Teams from the same confederation are not drawn into the same group, therefore one team from UEFA and one team from CONMEBOL will be drawn in each group. Brazil has been automatically assigned as A1, and therefore Uruguay will be assigned to Group B.
The participating Teams Include
BRAZIL(2014 FIFA WORLD CUP HOST)
SPAIN (2012 FIFA WORLD CUP WINNER)
JAPAN (2011 AFC ASIAN CUP WINNER)
MEXICO (2011 CONCACAF GOLD CUP WINNERS)
URUGUARY (2011 COPA AMERICA WINNER)
TAHITI (2012 OFC NATIONS CUP)
ITALY (2012 UEFA EURO CUP RUNNER-UP)
??????? (2013 CAF 2013 AFRICAN CUP OF NATIONS WINNER)
Italy were awarded a spot in the competition because Spain had won both the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2012. Since both competitions award their winners a place in the FIFA Confederations Cup, the runner-up of UEFA Euro 2012 received an invitation to the tournament.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter who is currently in Brazil for the draw twitted saying"Sao Paulo, the cradle of football in Brazil ready for Saturday’s
Else where FIFA leaders believe there’s still a lot left to be done in Brazil to successfully stage the 2013 Confederations Cup and the 2014 World Cup.
“There is a lot of work in the stadiums and a lot of work in urban mobility and the different infrastructure work,” FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke said Wednesday. “Yeah, we have plenty of work to do, but we will have what we need to organise the World Cup in the best environment.”
Former Brazilian Striker Ronaldo has assured the world of a successful Competition come 2013.
So with that in mind let's keep our finger crossed as soccer return to a country where many believe is its rightful Home.
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