Today marks the start of the Confederations Cup, a competition designed to take place a year before the start of the most prestigious football competition in existence, the World Cup. The participants consist of the respective champions of their continental competitions, spanning all continents. The previous World Cup winners, and the hosts of the upcoming contest are also present. In all, the competition involves 8 nations from all around the globe. I will briefly outline the participants, before asking how relevant the tournament is to the outcome of next year.
Before I do that, however, it is first worth noting the controversy that has surrounded this tournament. After the problems with the iconic Maracana stadium before the England friendly a couple of weeks ago, the country can hardly afford another battering in the tabloids over its suitability to host the great tournament. Protests over the spending of public money have already taken place outside Brasilia's stadium, and further protests are probably scheduled to disrupt proceedings. Whilst local authorities have been given the full confidence of FIFA to deal with the situation, the fact remains that controversy shrouds today's curtain raiser.
The 8 participants have been split into two groups of 4, and starting with group A, I will now briefly outline how they came to qualify for this competition. The hosts, Brazil, top this group, and take part in the opening match. Their opponents, Japan, qualified for this tournament after winning the 2011 Asian Cup, defeating Australia courtesy of an extra time goal from Southampton's Tadanari Lee. The third Group A participant is Mexico. The Olympic champions qualified for this tournament thanks to their 2011 Gold Cup victory over the USA, where they defeated their nemesis 4-2. Italy are the final team to be involved in group A. Though the Azzurri failed to win any of the major international tournaments, their run to the final of Euro 2012, coupled with Spain's qualification due to their World Cup win, booked the Italians' place in Brazil.
Group B, which starts tomorrow, begins with the current World Cup holders. The Spanish have dominated recent European and World tournaments, and as a result, their place cannot be in doubt. Uruguay occupy the second place in Group B. Having won the 2011 Copa America, ending the dominance of Brazil and Argentina, they beat the Paraguayans 3-0 in the final to solidify their place in Brazil. Thirdly, Nigeria occupy a place in the group, having been victorious in this year's African Cup of Nations. A Stephane M'Bia volley settled the final, with the Super Eagles defeating the underdogs Burkina Faso. The final team that will take part is the tiny nation of Tahiti. Having won their first international tournament in 2012, defeating New Caledonia in the final of the Oceania Nations Cup, the minnows will have to withstand an altogether more different challenge in Brazil.
As for how much the tournament indicates what is likely to occur in a year's time, I am highly sceptical. This is for two significant reasons. Firstly, there are several potential title contenders that will not be present at the Confederations Cup that you fully expect to be in Brazil in 2014. Examples of this include Germany, Portugal, Holland, and Argentina. It can certainly be argued that the reason they are not in Brazil for the next two weeks is simply because they are not the best sides in their region, and as a result should not be considered contenders. However, my argument against this would be that games often do not follow the pattern that you would expect. Think back to South Africa, and we see that the world champions Spain were in fact beaten in their opening group game by the Swiss. Should we consider Switzerland as contenders? Secondly, looking back four years to the Confederations Cup in South Africa, we see that the Brazilians lifted the trophy, only to be comprehensively outplayed in the World Cup quarter-finals by Holland a year later. World champions Spain, on the other hand, were eliminated at the hands of the USA.
For these reasons, I strongly suspect that this tournament will mean little in the grand scheme of things, and will do nothing to shed any light on who will win in Brazil next year. However, offer me a fortnight of international football in the summer, and I will accept it gladly. It may mean little, but my enjoyment will remain undiminished.
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