FIFA Confederation Cup 2013: No more a dress rehearsal?

There is more hope around the Confederations Cup this time around. The tournament that has suffered in its last two outings with the tag of ‘dress rehearsal’ (in fact still suffers as the author himself confesses to have used the same multiple number of times, and without any particular guilt) as it’s chief value was seen to be in fine-tuning the skills of the host nation rather than in being a rewarding footballing spectacle. Spain have set their eyes on the title this time around as they believe that their golden generation of midfielders deserves to win everything may it be the World Cup, the Euro or the next raffle that will be taken out. They have brought their strongest squad to the competition in an attempt to fill the gap in their much prized trophy cabinet.

The Confederation Cup’s conception was an accident in itself. The brainchild of the late Saudi Prince Faisal bin Fahd became a FIFA competition in 1997 and was turned into a handmaiden of the World Cup before the 2002 spectacle was held in Japan and South Korea. The problem with it remains what has always been, it has no purpose. With the World Cup as the established event that puts a mark of authority over who the greatest football team in the world is, the Confederation Cup with its format involving winners from different Confederation championships is only an absurd redundancy.

The tournament establishes the fact that the FIFA need to churn out as much money as possible even if it means disrupting the schedule of World Cup qualifiers. Germany have declined to take part in the competition twice. France declined after winning the World Cup in 1998. The tournament will promise some relatively good footballing action to those who have been starved by the off-season of League competitions around the world. Some of the time that they wasted in the desperation of reading up on all possible transfer rumours will be spent on watching some football. This year’s competition pits some top teams against each other but if you go with too many expectations, you are likely to be disappointed.

Brazil are perhaps one footballing team that are positive about this competition. They have a relatively inexperienced squad and they have not played a lot of competitive football last year by virtue of being the host nation and hence, qualified to the World Cup by default. They have a history at the event. They can get their balance right when they play against Mexico, Japan and Italy. If they do get past the group stage there will be the prospect of watching them battle against La Roja in the finals of the event and that is mouth-watering. They are also the defending champions so they have the little prestige that this competition has to protect.

Spain are, as mentioned, looking to bring genuine desire to this competition. They will contest their first game against Uruguay and that will be one to watch out for with the likes of Suarez, Diego Forlan on show. Juan Mata talked about the prospect of winning the cup ahead of the competition. He said, “There are many reasons why this tournament is so important to us. Most importantly we have never won it, but it is also held in Brazil. The thought of winning the trophy at the Maracana is fantastic; it is a mythical stadium.” That remains Spain’s sole concern at the tournament. They will be relying on their midfielders once again and their tiki-taka mould of football to take them to yet another piece of silverware.

It cannot be bad for the football fans around the world if more quality teams are brought into this competition with perhaps more than one team qualifying from each confederation but before that a suitable calendar period will have to be found for it which will be a very difficult task. With the Euro coming in midway through the road to the World Cup, there is very little room except this window which is currently being exploited by FIFA. Let’s hope that this year’s edition vindicates the hope that is now enveloping this competition.