2013 FIFA Confederations Cup

The 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup was the ninth FIFA Confederations Cup, which was held in Brazil from 15 to 30 June 2013 as a prelude to the 2014 FIFA World Cup.[2] The most recent winners of the six continental championships appeared in the tournament, along with hosts Brazil and UEFA Euro 2012 runners-up Italy, who qualified because the Euro 2012 winners, Spain, had also won the most recent FIFA World Cup in 2010 thus securing a spot in the tournament.

2013 FIFA Confederations Cup
Copa das Confederações da FIFA
Brasil 2013[1]
Tournament details
Host countryBrazil
Dates15–30 June
Teams8 (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s)6 (in 6 host cities)
Final positions
Champions Brazil (4th title)
Runners-up Spain
Third place Italy
Fourth place Uruguay
Tournament statistics
Matches played16
Goals scored68 (4.25 per match)
Attendance804,659 (50,291 per match)
Top scorer(s)Brazil Fred
Spain Fernando Torres
(5 goals each)
Best player(s)Brazil Neymar
Best goalkeeperBrazil Júlio César
Fair play award Spain
2009
2017

Host nation, Brazil successfully defended their title with a 3–0 win over Spain in the final. It was their fourth Confederations Cup title and third in a row, after previous wins in 1997, 2005 and 2009.

According to then FIFA president Sepp Blatter, the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup was the best version of the tournament ever played.[3] The competition was the first national team tournament to employ goal-line technology, which was also used at the 2014 World Cup.[4]

Qualified teams

2013 FIFA Confederations Cup participating teams
TeamConfederationQualification methodDate qualification securedParticipation no.
 BrazilCONMEBOLHosts30 October 20077th
 SpainUEFA2010 FIFA World Cup winners11 July 20102nd
 JapanAFC2011 AFC Asian Cup winners29 January 20115th
 MexicoCONCACAF2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup winners25 June 20116th
 UruguayCONMEBOL2011 Copa América winners24 July 20112nd
 TahitiOFC2012 OFC Nations Cup winners10 June 20121st
 ItalyUEFAUEFA Euro 2012 runners-up[5]28 June 20122nd
 NigeriaCAF2013 Africa Cup of Nations winners10 February 20132nd

Venues

Six stadiums were used, each in a different city.

Rio de JaneiroBrasília
Estádio do MaracanãEstádio Nacional
Capacity: 76,804[6]Capacity: 68,009[7]
FortalezaBelo Horizonte
Estádio CastelãoEstádio Mineirão
Capacity: 64,846[8]Capacity: 62,547[9]
SalvadorRecife
Arena Fonte NovaArena Pernambuco
Capacity: 52,048[10]Capacity: 44,248[11]

Draw

The draw for the competition was held at the Palácio das Convenções in the Anhembi Convention Center in São Paulo, Brazil on 1 December 2012.[12][13]

Teams from the same confederation were not drawn into the same group, therefore, one team each from UEFA and from CONMEBOL was drawn in each group. Brazil and Spain had automatically been assigned as A1 and B1 respectively, therefore, Italy and Uruguay were assigned respectively to Group A and Group B.[14]

Match officials

Internal view of the stadium in Belo Horizonte.

Ten trios of officials were announced by FIFA on 13 May 2013.[15][16]

ConfederationRefereeAssistants
AFCYuichi Nishimura (Japan)Toru Sagara (Japan)
Toshiyuki Nagi (Japan)
Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan)Abduxamidullo Rasulov (Uzbekistan)
Bakhadyr Kochkarov (Kyrgyzstan)
CAFDjamel Haimoudi (Algeria)Redouane Achik (Morocco)
Abdelhak Etchiali (Algeria)
CONCACAFJoel Aguilar (El Salvador)William Torres (El Salvador)
Juan Zumba (El Salvador)
CONMEBOLDiego Abal (Argentina)Hernán Maidana (Argentina)
Juan Pablo Belatti (Argentina)
Enrique Osses (Chile)Carlos Astroza (Chile)
Sergio Román (Chile)
UEFAHoward Webb (England)Michael Mullarkey (England)
Darren Cann (England)
Felix Brych (Germany)Mark Borsch (Germany)
Stefan Lupp (Germany)
Björn Kuipers (Netherlands)Sander van Roekel (Netherlands)
Erwin Zeinstra (Netherlands)
Pedro Proença (Portugal)Bertino Miranda (Portugal)
José Trigo (Portugal)

Squads

Teams had to name a 23-man squad (three of whom must be goalkeepers) by the FIFA deadline of 3 June 2013.[17] The squads were announced by FIFA on 7 June 2013.[18][19]

Group stage

A ticket for the competition's opening match in Brasília
The iconic Maracanã Stadium

The competition's dates were confirmed by FIFA on 27 July 2011 in the build-up to the draw for the 2014 World Cup's preliminary qualification rounds.[20] As the competition partially overlapped 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.[21] However, the AFC decided that the match day would only be adjusted for the AFC representative at the Confederations Cup, Japan.[22] The official final schedule was presented in Rio de Janeiro on 30 May 2012.[23]

All times listed are Brasília official time (UTC−03:00).[24]

All eight teams entered the group stage. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the semi-finals, while the bottom two teams in each group were eliminated from the tournament.[17] The ranking of the teams in each group was determined as follows:[17]

  1. Points obtained in all group matches;
  2. Goal difference in all group matches;
  3. Number of goals scored in all group matches;

If two or more teams were equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings were determined as follows:

  1. Points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
  2. Goal difference in the group matches between the teams concerned;
  3. Number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
  4. Drawing of lots by the FIFA Organising Committee.
Key to colours in group tables
Team has qualified for the semi-finals

Group A

PosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
1  Brazil (H)330092+79Advance to knockout stage
2  Italy32018806
3  Mexico310235−23
4  Japan300349−50
Source: FIFA
(H) Hosts
Brazil  3–0  Japan
Report
Mexico  1–2  Italy
Report

Brazil  2–0  Mexico
Report
Attendance: 57,804
Referee: Howard Webb (England)
Italy  4–3  Japan
Report

Italy  2–4  Brazil
Report
Japan  1–2  Mexico
Report

Group B

PosTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
1  Spain3300151+149Advance to knockout stage
2  Uruguay3201113+86
3  Nigeria310276+13
4  Tahiti3003124−230
Source: FIFA
Spain  2–1  Uruguay
Report
Tahiti  1–6  Nigeria
Report

Spain  10–0  Tahiti
Report
Nigeria  1–2  Uruguay
Report

Nigeria  0–3  Spain
Report
Uruguay  8–0  Tahiti
Report

Knockout stage

Brazil won the competition after beating Spain 3–0 in the final.

In the knockout stage, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, extra time would be played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winner.[25]

Bracket

 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
26 June – Belo Horizonte
 
 
 Brazil2
 
30 June – Rio de Janeiro
 
 Uruguay1
 
 Brazil3
 
27 June – Fortaleza
 
 Spain0
 
 Spain (p)0 (7)
 
 
 Italy0 (6)
 
Third place play-off
 
 
30 June – Salvador
 
 
 Uruguay (p)2 (2)
 
 
 Italy2 (3)

Semi-finals

Brazil  2–1  Uruguay
Report

Third place play-off

Final

Brazil  3–0  Spain
Report

Awards

Golden Ball winner Neymar
Golden BallGolden Boot
Neymar Fernando Torres
Silver BallSilver Boot
Andrés Iniesta Fred
Bronze BallBronze Boot
Paulinho Neymar
Golden GloveFIFA Fair Play Trophy
Júlio César  Spain

Source: FIFA[26][27]

FIFA.com Users' Dream Team
GoalkeeperDefendersMidfieldersForwardsCoach

Júlio César

Dani Alves
Sergio Ramos
Thiago Silva
David Luiz

Andrés Iniesta
Andrea Pirlo
Paulinho

Neymar
Fernando Torres
Fred

Luiz Felipe Scolari

Source: FIFA[28]

Statistics

Goalscorers

Fernando Torres was awarded the Golden Boot award on tie-breakers. Both he and Fred scored five goals and made one assist, but Torres was given the award due to having played fewer minutes over the tournament.[29] In total, 68 goals were scored by 38 different players, with three of them credited as own goals.

5 goals
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
1 Own goal

Source: FIFA[30]

Tournament ranking

Per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

PosGrpTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsFinal result
1A  Brazil (H)5500143+1115Champions
2B  Spain5311154+1110Runners-up
3A  Italy5221101008Third place
4B  Uruguay5212147+77Fourth place
5B  Nigeria310276+13Eliminated in
group stage
6A  Mexico310235−23
7A  Japan300349−50
8B  Tahiti3003124−230
Source: FIFA[31]
(H) Hosts

Match ball

See also Adidas Tango 12
Adidas Cafusa, the official match ball of the tournament

The official match ball for the Cup was produced by Adidas, a development of the Adidas Tango 12. It was unveiled during the draw for the competition. The ball is named "Cafusa" (pronounced [kɐˈfuzɐ]) – a syllabic abbreviation of the words "carnaval" (Carnival), "futebol" (football) and "samba",[32] aside of being homophonous with cafuza, the Portuguese name for a zamba i.e. a woman of mixed Amerindian and black African descent.[citation needed] Former Brazil captain Cafu was invited to officially unveil the ball.[32]

Prize money

The competing national football associations received prize money from FIFA based on their representative team's final finishing position.[33]

Competition stageFinal positionPrize money (US dollars)
FinalWinner$4.1m
Runner-up$3.6m
Match for third placeThird place$3m
Fourth place$2.5m
Group stageFifth to eighth place$1.7m

Goal-line technology

The 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup was the first international tournament for national teams to use goal-line technology. The IFAB officially approved the use of goal-line technology in July 2012, and it was first used in a FIFA competition for the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup in December 2012. Having trialled systems from both Hawk-Eye and GoalRef during the Club World Cup, FIFA announced on 2 April 2013 that the German technology GoalControl had been chosen as the official goal-line technology for the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup.[34] Its system, GoalControl-4D, uses 14 high-speed cameras located around the pitch and directed at both goals.[35] It was used in the match for third place between Uruguay and Italy to determine the scorer of Italy's first goal.

Protests

Protesters on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Their sign translates to "If the bus fare doesn't drop, Rio is going to stop!"

Prior to the opening ceremony at the Brasilia National Stadium on 15 June, demonstrations took place outside the stadium, organised by people unhappy with the amount of public money spent to enable the hosting of the FIFA World Cup.[36] Police used tear gas and pepper spray to quell the protests.[37]

The demonstrations were part of wider unrest and rioting in Brazilian cities initially sparked by increased ticket prices on public transport, but growing to express deeper public disenchantment with the financial management of the country by its government, specially due to the high inflation.[36] The Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff as well as FIFA president Sepp Blatter were heavily booed as they were announced to conduct their speeches at the tournament's opening.[38] Further protests took place the following day prior to the game between Mexico and Italy in Rio de Janeiro.[39][40] Blatter said that the protesters "should not use football to make their demands heard",[41] and that the public expenditure on staging the tournaments was on "items that are for the future, not just for the World Cup".[41]

As the protests continued to intensify during the week, with a reported participation of over a million people taking to the streets in a hundred different towns and cities,[42] reports in the Brazilian media suggested that FIFA was having to negotiate with the teams to keep them in Brazil and that the tournament could be abandoned.[43] However, a FIFA statement on 21 June insisted that "to date, neither FIFA nor the local organising committee have ever discussed any such possibility of cancelling the FIFA Confederations Cup".[44]

FIFA General Secretary Jérôme Valcke subsequently admitted that FIFA had held a "crisis meeting" involving the Brazilian government regarding the completion of the tournament,[45] but sought to distance FIFA from the wider social unrest, stating that "the most important thing for us is to detach the World Cup or the Confederations Cup from these problems. We are not the answer to all problems and we are definitely not the reason for such a crisis. We are just part of what Brazil is doing for the next 20 years....the light FIFA is being shown in here, is the wrong one".[45] He also reaffirmed that the protests had not caused FIFA to consider moving the 2014 World Cup away from Brazil.[45]

Just before the final in Rio de Janeiro, a large crowd marched towards the stadium both in support of the team and in continuation over the original protests. Though largely peaceful,[46] there were some disturbances.[47]

References

External links