Four years ago the event was considered the great rehearsal for the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ finals and millions of fans watched excitedly. This year, 12 months prior to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, the FIFA Confederations Cup will be held again. As in 2005, when Germany welcomed the best teams from all continents, South Africa, as hosts of the next FIFA World Cup finals, will stage the Confed Cup. The event will take place between June 14 and 28, 2009. Hosts South Africa will meet Asian champions Iraq in the opening match at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on June 14. In the second match of Group A, Oceania champions New Zealand will play European champions Spain, at Rustenburg, a few hours later.

Group B provides equally high quality teams from the draw. South American champions Brazil and Africa champions Egypt will meet at Mangaung, Bloemfontein, on June 15. That same day CONCACAF champions USA take on World Cup champions Italy at Tshwane, Pretoria. You will find the complete competitions schedule of group matches at fifa.com, the dates of the semi-finals, the bronze medal match and the final at navigation point „Phase 2“.

FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter is a great fan of the competition which he first promoted when he was the FIFA General Secretary: “The FIFA Confederations Cup is first of all a top football tournament with the champions of all six confederations, the reigning FIFA World Cup champions and hosts South Africa. In addition, it also offers the organisers of the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals a perfect opportunity to test the infrastructure, logistics and services. As in Germany in 2005, we again expect a festival of champions providing exciting matches”.

The initial competition took place under the name “King Fahd Cup” in Saudi-Arabia in 1992 and 1995. The 1997 event at the same location then received the official name FIFA Confederations Cup. The winners were Argentina, Denmark and Brazil. In 1999, when the tournament was held under the present system with eight teams, hosts Mexico triumphed over Brazil in the final. In 2001, the FIFA Confed Cup became the rehearsal for the FIFA World Cup finals for the first time. Consequently, Japan and South Korea were the hosts. Reigning FIFA World Cup champions France defeated Japan in the final, but were less lucky the following year when they were eliminated after the first round at the FIFA World Cup proper.

The French also won the next tournament, at home in 2003, by beating Cameroon in the final. Two years later it was Germany’s turn to host the event, where Brazil achieved their second victory over Argentina. By then the competition had well established itself, with the number of spectators increasing enormously from the early days. Despite that, FIFA decided to extend the break from two to four years. In future the FIFA Confed Cup will always take place one year prior to the FIFA World Cup finals in the country of the hosts. Accordingly it will be Brazil’s turn in 2013. But now everybody is looking to South Africa in June. There is already great anticipation in the country, as it is the first major international football event with top teams from other continents to take place in Africa. And it will further increase the worldwide interest in the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa.