The Joy of Six: Confederations Cup moments | Nick Ames


From the early King Fahd Cup finals to Brazilian glory, via Tahiti’s moment on the big stage, half a dozen memories from the tournament’s 25 years

The first two iterations of the Confederations Cup were called nothing of the sort. In 1992 the King Fahd Cup, staged in Saudi Arabia and named after the nation’s monarch at the time, appeared inconspicuously in the fixture calendar and took place over six October days in Riyadh. In the first questionably-timed international tournament to be held in the Middle East – a tradition that will continue into the next decade – only four teams were invited to play: USA, Argentina, Ivory Coast and the Saudis squared off in a simple format that began with two semi-finals. Stardust was minimal beyond an Argentina setup that had brought along Claudio Caniggia, Diego Simeone, Fernando Redondo and Gabriel Batistuta.

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