Confed Cup Format

The FIFA Confederations Cup takes place every two years and made its official debut in Riyadh in 1997. In 1992 and 1995, two similar tournaments were held under the name of the Intercontinental Championship.

Eight teams will take part in the 2005 tournament: Germany as hosts, Brazil as World Champions, Tunisia (winners of the 2004 African Nations Cup), Mexico (winners of the 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup), Japan (winners of the 2004 Asian Cup), Argentina (finalists of the 2004 Copa America, Australia (winners of the 2004 OFC Nations Cup) and Greece (2004 European Champions).

As Brazil were already qualified as World Champions and won the Copa America, FIFA granted Argentina a place in the competition as the Copa America finalists.

The participating nations are split into two groups, with each team playing one another once, a total of three games each. The winners and runners up and each group go through to the semi-finals, with the winners of Group A playing the runners up in Group B and vice versa.

If two or more teams end up with the same number of points at the end of all the games, the following criteria will be used:

- Head-to-head results

- Goal difference

- Goals scored

- Decision of the committee by drawing lots

The losing semi-finalists face each other in a play-off to determine the third and fourth placed teams.