FIFA Confederations Cup 2009: Fingers Crossed

If you’re not familiar with the Confederations Cup, then here’s the lowdown:

It’s an eight team tournament, made up of the six winners of the regional international tournaments (European Championships, Copa America etc) plus the World Cup holders and the World Cup hosts. It’s two groups of four and then top two go to the semis.

The ball (left) has been unveiled, and looks damn good. The draw for the group stage was made over the weekend, and the results were more than a little lopsided:

Group A: South Africa, Spain, Iraq, New Zealand
Group B: USA, Italy, Brazil, Egypt

Think you’ll agree that Spain’s chances of making the semis are pretty good. The upside of all this unfairness is a great looking Group B. Italy and Brazil we know about, but the group stage will be an excellent chance for the USA and Egypt to prove they can hang with the big boys.

If you’re not sure how seriously to take this tournament… it’s pretty much the equivalent of the Club World Cup. There’s a trophy at stake, but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t win it. Because any tournament that starts with only eight teams can only ever be so significant.

For the smaller teams it’s a chance to get some valuable FIFA world ranking points, climb up that table and get a more favourable seeding in future tournament draws. And for the audience it’s at least some half-decent football to fill the gap next summer.

But arguably the most important thing here is the host nation. The real point of the Confederations Cup is - no matter what else FIFA says - to give the World Cup hosts a dry run at staging big games. Which makes this Confederations Cup arguably the most important of all time.

All the questions about whether or not South Africa is ready to host World Cup 2010 will be at least partially answered next June. Fingers crossed.

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