FIFA CONFEDERATIONS CUP

The 'FIFA Confederations Cup' is a football (soccer) tournament for national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It is contested by the winners of each of the six FIFA confederation championships (CAF, CONMEBOL, UEFA, AFC, OFC, CONCACAF), along with the FIFA World Cup champion and the host country, to bring the number of teams up to eight. Artemio Franchi Trophy and 1980 Mundialito, or Copa D'Oro, are its precursors.
When the World Cup champion is also winner of its confederation championship, then the World Cup runner-up also enters the Confederations Cup, ensuring eight teams for the tournament. In the 2005 tournament, however, Brazil, as World Cup champion, and World Cup runner-up Germany, as host, had qualified. When Brazil also won the Copa América, the vacant eighth spot was awarded to Argentina, runner-up in the Copa América.
The tournament was originally organised by and held in Saudi Arabia and called the 'King Fahd Cup', contested in 1992 and 1995 by the Saudi national side and some continental champions. In 1997, FIFA took over the organization of the tournament, named it the ''FIFA Confederations Cup'' and staged the competition every two years. From 2005, the tournament is to be held once in every four years, one year prior to each World Cup in the host country of the forthcoming World Cup. The Confederation Cup is now considered a dress-rehearsal for the World Cup it precedes. The 2009 tournament will take place in South Africa.
For the next edition of the tournament South Africa (host country), Italy (2006 FIFA World Cup Champion), the USA (2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup Champion), Brazil (Copa América 2007 Champion) and Iraq (2007 AFC Asian Cup Champion) are already qualified.

Contents

Results

Summaries

Successful national teams

Broadcasting rights

Goalscorers

Sources

See also

Results

Summaries

Year	Host		Final				Third Place Match
			Winner	Score	Runner-up		3rd Place	Score	4th Place
1992 ''Details''			''	'3–1'				'5–2'
1995 ''Details''			''	'2–0'				'1–1' '(5–4)' on penalties
1997 ''Details''			''	'6–0'				'1–0'
1999 ''Details''			''	'4–3'				'2–0'
2001 ''Details''	&		''	'1–0'				'1–0'
2003 ''Details''			''	'1–0' after extra time				'2–1'
2005 ''Details''			''	'4–1'				'4–3' after extra time
2009 ''Details''

★ NOTE: The 1992 and 1995 tournaments were named the King Fahd Cup. FIFA recognizes them officially as Confederations Cups now.^[1]

Successful national teams

Team	Titles	Runners-up	Third-place	Fourth-place
	2 (1997, 2005)	1 (1999)	-	1 (2001)
	2 (2001, 2003 ★ )	-	-	-
	1 (1992)	2 (1995, 2005)	-	-
	1 (1999 ★ )	-	1 (1995)	1 (2005)
	1 (1995)	-	-	-
	-	1 (1997)	1 (2001)	-
	-	1 (1992 ★ )	-	1 (1999)
	-	1 (2001 ★ )	-	-
	-	1 (2003)	-	-
	-	-	2 (1992, 1999)	-
	-	-	1 (1997)	-
	-	-	1 (2003)	-
	-	-	1 (2005 ★ )	-
	-	-	-	1 (1992)
	-	-	-	1 (1995)
	-	-	-	1 (1997)
	-	-	-	1 (2003)

:''
★ = hosts''

Broadcasting rights

★ 'United Kingdom': Live coverage of selected matches has been shown on terrestrial channel Five, formerly known as Channel 5. Delayed coverage is usually shared between Five and satellite/cable network British Eurosport. Seen as a lower key event, the Confederations Cup has never been shown on main BBC and ITV channels. The rights are generally bought up quietly, around six months before the main event for much less money than the FIFA World Cup.

★ In 'Italy' RAI must, by law, broadcast the ''Azzurri'' matches, therefore the state broadcaster is very likely to buy part of the rights (if not all of them, since they are cheaper than the World Cup ones) for the Confederations Cup when Italy participates.

★ 'Australia': In the past, Australia has reguarly qualified for the tournament as champions of Oceania, however has had difficulty qualifying for the FIFA World Cup as Oceania has never had an automatic qualifying spot. This has meant the tournament has always been considered quite significant for Australian soccer, this has seen the vast majority of games being shown live on SBS, a Free-to-air network. Now that Australia has entered the Asian Football Confederation, qualification for this tournament will be much more difficult, qualification for the FIFA World Cup will also be quite difficult.

Goalscorers

★ see FIFA Confederations Cup goalscorers.

Sources

1. http://fifa.com/en/cc2005/index.html Official FIFA Confederations Cup Website

See also

★ UEFA European Football Championship

★ Copa América

★ African Cup of Nations

★ AFC Asian Cup

★ CONCACAF Gold Cup

★ OFC Nations Cup

★ Artemio Franchi Trophy

★ 1980 Mundialito

★ FIFA World Cup