Brazil hosts Confederations draw with eye on 2014
The eight-nation event in Brazil brings together four former world champions.
SAO PAULO: Hours ahead of Saturday s draw for next June s Confederations Cup, FIFA president Sepp Blatter underlined the importance of the eight-team tournament as more than just a dress rehearsal for the 2014 World Cup.
The eight-nation event in Brazil brings together four former world champions in reigning top-ranked side Spain, the Brazilians themselves, Italy and Uruguay.
And whilst the hosts see the event as a dress rehearsal for 2014, Blatter says the meeting of continental champions is an important date in its own right.
"This is really a rendezvous of world champions. High quality is here -- we have 12 World Cup stars," said Blatter, in reference to five world titles for Brazil, four for Italy, two for Uruguay and one for Spain.
Asian champions Japan, CONCACAF champions Mexico, and Oceania surprise package Tahiti are also invited to the party for which 132,000 tickets have already been sold, FIFA indicated Friday.
The winners of January s African Nations Cup will likewise compete.
"There is great passion for football in Brazil, the mecca of football," added Blatter, who is confident that all will be in place in six months time when the action starts in Brasilia before further encounters in Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza, Recife, final host Rio de Janeiro and Salvador.
Defending champions Brazil will be out to prove under the reappointed Luiz Felipe Scolari, the architect of their last World Cup success in 2002, that they can rise above recent poor showings which have left the hosts outside FIFA s rankings top ten.
That slump precipitated the sacking of Mano Menezes as coach and Scolari s return rescue mission, but Spain coach Vicente del Bosque said he identifies the auriverde as "the team to beat".
Brazilian politicians have been striving for months to prove the country can cope with the logistics of hosting major competitions.
The World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics require a massive infrastructural overhaul and the Confederations Cup will offer only a small-scale glimpse of the host nation s organisational capabilities.
FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke says they can -- despite recent trenchant criticism of a country which he recently infuriated by saying it needed a "kick up the backside".
On Friday, Valcke admitted that, initially, "due to my words we reached a level where we were going nowhere."
But since, strained relations have been repaired.
"Work has been done, if we were at the same level today that we were 10 months ago, I would be as negative as I was 10 months ago. Work has been done. We are moving on, and in the right way."
On the face of it, Brazil will expect to meet Spain in the final but the hosts will also be even more open than their rivals to blooding as much new talent as possible given that, as pre-qualified World Cup hosts, they have no other competitive internationals up until 2014.
The opening match in Brasilia is on June 15, 2013, and then Rio s mythical Maracana, currently in the latter stages of a long drawn out refurbishment, will host the June 30 final.
Saturday s draw in Sao Paulo will keep apart seeded Brazil and Spain as well as Brazil and Uruguay and Spain and Italy for the group matches spread across the six venues.
