International Cups

Format: Qualifying, group, and knockout

Current Champions: italy

The World Cup, as often referenced, is actually the World Cup finals, a 32-team tournament following various qualifying cups. The World Cup, then, is a series of tournaments that spans the entire globe and encompasses almost 3 years.

Qualifying

Each continent plays a tournament to determine which of their countries will represent the continent at the World Cup Finals. CONCACAF (North and Central American and the Caribbean) will send three sides to the 2010 World Cup Finals: USA, Mexico, and Honduras. Most qualifying tournaments are played double round-robin style – the teams play each other 2 times, with each team playing 1 game at home.

Group and Knockout

At the World Cup Finals teams are sorted into 8 groups of 4. The top seven teams (Ranked according to FIFA’s official rankings – a system similar to, but not quite as reviled as, NCAA football’s BCS rankings) plus the host nation are each put into different groups, allowing the top teams to avoid facing each other right away and, hopefully, helping the host nation advance out of the group stage. The rest of the nations are randomly drawn into groups, though the organizers attempt to avoid having multiple teams from the same continent in a group.

The subsequent knockout round of 16 teams is single-elimination.

The World Cup Finals’ host is determined by FIFA (this works like the Olympic Organizing Committee selecting the Olympics host, with the same amount of hearsay about bribes). No continent is allowed to hold the cup twice in a row.

Format: Qualifying, group, and knockout

Current champions: Brazil

Qualifying is granted to the champion of each federation’s continental tournament (for the United States this is the Gold Cup). Since there are eight federations, the ‘Confed’ Cup is an 8-team tournament with two groups of 4. After the group stage (top two teams advance), there is a single-elimination knockout round (semifinals and finals).

Held a year before the World Cup, the Confederations Cup serves as a warm-up tournament for the host nation. It gives the country an opportunity to make sure their infrastructure is ready to host the thousands of people that will descend on the nation the following year.

The Confederations Cup is also invaluable for the participating teams. They can scout training grounds and stadiums, acquire a familiarity with the weather, and, of course, gain experience playing against some of the top national teams in the world. The United States is hoping its run in the 2009 Confederations Cup (runners-up to champions Brazil) translates to World Cup success in 2010.

Current champions: Mexico

CONCACAF’s Gold Cup, like all international tournaments held every two years, is considered less prestigious than events held every four. Due to the frequency of the cup, top players tend only to participate in editions that grant placement in the more celebrated Confederations Cup (every other tournament). Gold Cups without qualifying at stake tend to be opportunities for younger national team players to audition for spots on the full squad.

Each cup, the USA, Mexico, and Canada automatically qualify. Teams from Central America and the Caribbean play tournaments to gain access. The twelve teams are placed into 3 groups (as always, composed of four teams) and the top two finishers in each group advance to the single-elimination knockout round.

The Gold Cup is most often hosted by the United States.

Current champions: Spain

The Euro is the most prestigious international tournament outside of the World Cup. After qualifying and the group stage (16 teams), the two top finishers advance to the quarterfinals and the start of the single-elimination knockout round.

UEFA (European soccer’s governing body) chooses the host stadium for the final.

Format: Group and knockout

Current champions: Brazil

The Copa America is South America’s answer to the Euro. CONMEBOL (South America’s governing body) automatically grants entrance to its 10 members – Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. They also invites two teams from other regions to participate, adding up to a 12-team tournament. The United States has attended 3 competitions with their best finish 4^th place in 1995.

Historically, the Copa America has been held every 2 years and, thus, considered a lesser cup. CONMEBOL hopes that increasing the frequency to every 4 will also increase its importance in the eyes of national teams and fans.