 |
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
Rude awakening Club championship a lesson for European clubs
Posted: Sunday January 16, 2000 09:06 PM
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) -- FIFA's inaugural Club World Championship was a rude awakening to Europeans who may have believed their continent had the monopoly on top-class club football. Neither of the European sides at the eight-team tournament finished in the top three -- Vasco da Gama and Corinthians contested an all-Brazilian final and Mexico's Necaxa edged out Real Madrid on penalties to claim third place. Manchester United failed to progress beyond the group stage. The Europeans have argued that conditions favored their opponents. But even taking this into consideration, they must now admit that clubs in Latin America, Asia and Africa are more than simply suppliers of talent for European football. Necaxa coach Raul Arias, whose squad held both Manchester United and Real Madrid to 1-1 draws, said that his team's results proved that the Mexican game was improving. "A lot of people didn't believe that Necaxa could get as far as third place," said Arias, who added he was delighted at being given the chances for his little-known club to play against two of the biggest names in the games. "We showed how well football is played in Mexico." "The results are a fair reflection of today's reality," said Real coach Vicente del Bosque. His team, in addition to being held by Necaxa, nearly lost to Morocco's Raja Casablanca in the first round before scraping a 3-2 win. Not even Brazilian club football is taken seriously in Europe, mainly because it is so hopelessly disorganized and because so many top players move abroad. More than 200 Brazilian professionals are currently registered as being foreign-based in countries ranging from Spain and Italy to Finland, El Salvador and China. But the country produces so much talent that, as soon as one player leaves, another emerges, allowing clubs such as Vasco and Corinthians to continue to compete with the best. Critics had predicted that teams such as Al-Nassr of Saudi Arabia and Australia's South Melbourne would be hammered by Real and United, but this did not happen. No team managed to win a game by more than two goals, to the joy of FIFA president Sepp Blatter. "People said the smaller teams would be eaten, that games would end with 10, 11 or even 12 goals," he said. "But I repeat. There are no longer any weak teams." Most observers agreed the tournament was more successful than expected, producing several top class games and revealing talented players such as Necaxa captain Alex Aguinaga. Aguinaga has been playing consistently well for years, but because he has spent most of his career in Mexico and comes from Ecuador, which has never qualified for a World Cup, this has been his first chance to perform on a world stage. The competition's future, however, remains undefined. FIFA appear torn between having a small event annually or a bigger one, maybe with up to 16 teams, every two years. The criteria for what teams take part also needs to be clearer. Real Madrid, for example, played because they won a different world title -- the one-game Intercontinental Cup -- in 1998. Champion Corinthians, picked to represent host nation Brazil, sneaked in despite never having won South America's Copa Libertadores. Even more confusingly, reigning South American champions Palmeiras were barred at the door, replaced instead by Vasco, Libertadores winner back in August 1998. There is also the question of the Intercontinental Cup itself, played annually in Tokyo between the Libertadores and European champions. If that match, which is not organized by FIFA, continues, then soccer runs the same risk as boxing and could end up with different clubs all claiming to be world champions.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
