The2013 FIFA Confederations Cup was the ninthFIFA Confederations Cup, which was held inBrazil from 15 to 30 June 2013 as a prelude to the2014 FIFA World Cup.[1] The most recent winners of the six continental championships appeared in the tournament, along with hostsBrazil andUEFA Euro 2012 runners-upItaly, who qualified because the Euro 2012 winners,Spain, had also won the most recentFIFA World Cup in2010 thus securing a spot in the tournament.
The two-time defending champion and 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 in1997,2005 and2009.
According to thenFIFA presidentSepp Blatter, the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup was the best version of the tournament ever played.[2] The competition was the first national team tournament to employgoal-line technology, which was also used at the 2014 World Cup.[3]
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]
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]
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 thefourth round of the2014 FIFA World Cup qualification in Asian zone, theAsian Football Confederation (AFC) askedFIFA 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 inRio de Janeiro on 30 May 2012.[23]
All eight teams entered the group stage. The group winners and runners-up advanced to thesemi-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]
Points obtained in all group matches;
Goal difference in all group matches;
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:
Points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
Goal difference in the group matches between the teams concerned;
Number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
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 apenalty shoot-out to determine the winner.[25]
Fernando Torres was awarded the Golden Boot award on tie-breakers. Both he andFred 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.
Per statistical convention in football, matches decided inextra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided bypenalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.
Adidas Cafusa, the official match ball of the tournament
The official match ball for the Cup was produced byAdidas, a development of theAdidas Tango 12. It was unveiled during the draw for the competition. The ball is named "Cafusa" (pronounced[kɐˈfuzɐ]) – asyllabic abbreviation of the words "carnaval" (Carnival), "futebol" (football) and "samba",[32] aside of being homophonous withcafuza, the Portuguese name for azamba i.e. a woman of mixed Amerindian and black African descent.[citation needed] Former Brazil captainCafu was invited to officially unveil the ball.[32]
The 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup was the first international tournament for national teams to usegoal-line technology. TheIFAB officially approved the use of goal-line technology in July 2012, and it was first used in a FIFA competition for the2012 FIFA Club World Cup in December 2012. Having trialled systems from bothHawk-Eye and GoalRef during the Club World Cup, FIFA announced on 2 April 2013 that the German technologyGoalControl 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.
Prior to the opening ceremony at theBrasilia 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 widerunrest 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] TheBrazilian presidentDilma Rousseff as well asFIFA presidentSepp 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 SecretaryJérôme 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]
^"Users pick Top 11".FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Archived fromthe original on 8 July 2013. Retrieved4 July 2013.FIFA.com users have voted and elected the Dream Team for the FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013:
Julio Cesar; Dani Alves, Sergio Ramos, Thiago Silva, David Luiz; Andres Iniesta, Andrea Pirlo, Paulinho; Neymar, Fernando Torres, Fred; Luiz Felipe Scolari.
^"Prize money up by 14 per cent".FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 15 February 2013. Archived fromthe original on 19 February 2013. Retrieved18 June 2013.