The 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup football tournament was the sixth FIFA Confederations Cup, held in June 2003. Hosts France retained the title they had won in 2001, but the tournament was overshadowed by the death of Cameroonian midfielder Marc-Vivien Foé, who died of heart failure in his side's semi-final against Colombia. Foé's death united the French and Cameroonian teams in the final match, which was played even though players from both sides had explicitly stated that the match should not be played out of respect for Foé. France went on to win with a golden goal from Thierry Henry.
At the presentation of medals and trophies, two Cameroon players held a large photo of Foé and a runner-up medal was hung to the edge of the photo. When French captain Marcel Desailly was presented with the Confederations Cup, which he held in unison with Cameroon captain Rigobert Song. Foé finished third in media voting for player of the tournament and was posthumously awarded the Bronze Ball at its conclusion.
This was the last Confederations Cup that did not serve as a warm-up event to the FIFA World Cup.
<sup>1</sup>Italy, the UEFA Euro 2000 runners-up, declined to take part as did Germany, the 2002 FIFA World Cup runners-up. So did Spain, who were ranked second in the FIFA World Rankings at the time. They were replaced by Turkey, who came third in the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
Five bids came before the deadline at 1 May 2002. Australia, Portugal and the United States put in single bids, while South AfricaâÂÂEgypt and FranceâÂÂSwitzerland put in joint bids. The FranceâÂÂSwitzerland bid never materialized.
The host was selected on 24 September 2002, during a meeting of the FIFA Executive Committee.
The matches were played in:
Africa
Asia
Europe
North America, Central America and Caribbean
Oceania
South America
The Golden Ball award is given to the tournament's best player, as voted by the media.
The Golden Shoe award is given to the tournament's top goalscorer.
FIFA presents the Fair Play Award to the team with the best fair play record, according to a points system and criteria established by the FIFA Fair Play Committee.
Thierry Henry received the Golden Shoe award for scoring four goals. In total, 37 goals were scored by 22 different players, with none of them credited as own goal.