#1 The Confederations Cup comes of age
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There was a time where teams really didn’t want to participate in the Confederations Cup, as Germany declined invitations three times for the tournament before finally qualifying for 2005, for which they only qualified because they were the host nation. As did 1998 world champions, France, who did not take part in the tournament in 1999.
In theory, at least, the Confederation Cup was considered as the third cousin of the World Cup, the Euros and even the Copa America. The matches were considered by critics as nothing more than jumped up exhibition matches - a mere starter to the World Cup’s main course and no one cared who won or lost. Last time, however, something seemed to click. Maybe it was Brazil that did the trick, the world stage of football but despite all it's problems, the host country somehow managed to take the tournament to another level.
Fans were cheering from their hearts and had even adopted teams such as Tahiti, Italy and even Japan as their own teams. They managed to create an atmosphere that rivalled the FIFA World Cup and also more than made up for the lack of travelling supporters.
The outcome for the neutrals, at least, was first class entertainment and Brazil 2013 served us some incredible games, from the Japan 4-3 Italy, the Nigeria 1-2 Uruguay and even the Spain vs Italy semi-finals. If Russia 2017 can pick up from where the last one left off, it would make it the tournament to watch.
