Grand Prix de Fútbol 2016

The Grand Prix de Fútbol 2016 was the 36th edition of the annual Grand Prix de Fútbol. It was hosted in Croatia, who earned the hosting rights in 2008, being the earliest host right awarding, despite the fact that the tournament took place in 2016. It was hosted in 6 venues, across the same number of cities in Croatia. Most of the football matches were played at Maksimir, which had the highest capacity rate (37,168) while the least matches were played at Stadion Aldo Drossina, the stadium with the lowest capacity (10,500). Despite the fact that this tournament did not even have around 1 million in attendance, it has set the record for most goals, with 248 goals being scored, with 200 included in group stage.

Defending title holders, Colombia, withdrew from the tournament and instead played *Liga Dos*, a secondary like system hosted by FIFA, in Spain.

In the final, hosts Croatia lost to Brazil in a penalty shootout, after a drawn 1:1 game.

## Host selection

FIFA announced in 2006 that the Grand Prix de Fútbol 2016 is to be hosted in Europe, likely in the Balkans. Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina had planned in forward to team up, however, the Serbian and Croatian Football Federation had criticized FIFA for not only the logo design (which included a map of the three countries, without borders), but for also the fact that nearly everything (including posters, commercial and other types of branding) were included in only English, instead of translating into the three languages separately. A commercial later was criticized for using the logo without bordering the countries (which had a resemblance to former Yugoslavia). Serbia had withdrawn from the selection process, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, after protests in Sarajevo had withdrawn as well, in 2007. FIFA announced in 2008 that Croatia is to be host, despite having a lesser amount of stadiums with larger capacity. No evidence of bribery was suggested, and Croatia went on to host Grand Prix de Fútbol 2016.

## Qualification

Following qualification matches played between August 2015 and February 2016, the following 32 teams - shown with their last pre-tournament FIFA World Rankings - qualified for the final tournament.

***Qualifying groups to be added soon.***

## Results

#### **Group stage**

The group stage took place from 12 June, from the opening ceremony (Croatia v Honduras) to 26 June, when the final two group stage matches took place.

**Group A**

**Group B**

**Group C**

**Group D**

**Group E**

**Group F**

**Group G**

**Group H**

The group stage ended on 27th June, when the final third round of the group stages were played (20-27 June). The top two teams of the group stage would advance into the round of sixteen, while the third placed team would play the Liga 8, and the fourth placed team would play in the Liga Quatro, which started on 1st August.

#### **Knockout stage**

The knockout stage was played from 28th June until the final on 13th July, 2016.

**Round of sixteen**

**Quarter-finals**

**Semi-finals**

**Third place play-off**

**Final**

The final was played on 13th July, in the Maksimir Stadium. It was played by heavy team favourites Croatia and Brazil. Brazil won the game through a 2-3 penalty shootout win, after a 1-1 draw after extra time.

## Awards

**Best group stage teams:**

FIFA, as part of the annual awards, ranked the top 5 teams with highest scoring. Germany set a world record for 18 goals scored in the entire group stage match, and also not earning any goal at any match at the group stage in all of it's three rounds, alongside Croatia, who scored 11 goals.