The FIFA Club World Cup continues to struggle for legitimacy. The fourth edition of FIFA's revamped continental club championship took place in Japan in December, generating moderate attendances and garnering only a lukewarm media response.
Since putting an end to the old Intercontinental Cup in 2005, the Club World Cup has struggled to gain acceptance in a crowded football market. The Intercontinental Cup was popular as a one-off contest at a neutral venue, as South America's club champions pitted themselves against their European equivalent. The new tournament, however, features a convoluted format that requires teams to spend up to a week in Japan.
In terms of scheduling the tournament poses problems in an already packed calendar. While the domestic league in Argentina had been wrapped up by the time South American champions Boca Juniors made their way to Japan, European champions Milan were forced to reschedule league fixtures against Reggina and Livorno. Meanwhile African champions Etoile du Sahel were in the midst of their domestic campaign, yet Central American representatives Pachuca had been knocked out of the Mexican playoffs a full month before the Club World Cup even kicked off.
Sepahan 1 v Urawa Reds 3The standard of football has also come into question. This year Italian giants Milan were especially vocal in insisting that they had travelled to Japan with the aim of becoming world champions. Critics were quick to highlight Milan's dismal start to their domestic league campaign, however, where they are yet to win at home in Serie A. Indeed many critics claimed that Milan merely used the Club World Cup as a means of deflecting attention away from their poor domestic form.
Nevertheless Milan's win in Japan came at a canter. They barely broke sweat in beating Asian champions Urawa Reds, before hammering Boca Juniors 4-2 in the final in Yokohama. Boca Juniors looked a shadow of their former selves, and the finger of blame must surely be pointed at FIFA, at least in part.
The world game's governing body ruled that Boca playmaker Juan Roman Riquleme was ineligible to play at the Club World Cup, after his protracted transfer from Spanish side Villarreal was sealed after the deadline for squad announcements had passed.
Riquelme fired Boca Juniors to Copa Libertadores glory while on loan from Villarreal, but a permanent transfer from the Spanish side to Boca Juniors was agreed well before the Club World Cup kicked off. With the two sides squabbling over personal terms, Riquelme's transfer was registered three days after FIFA's squad deadline for the Club World Cup had expired.
Despite Boca's protests, FIFA refused to register Riquelme for the tournament, denying fans the chance to witness one of football's truly global stars in action. Conversely, Milan registered an unfit Ronaldo for the tournament, and then replaced him with Giuseppe Favalli when the Brazilian was predictably ruled out of the competition on the eve of Milan's clash with Urawa.
Sepahan v Urawa RedsThe absence of Riquelme went some way to ensuring that Boca's semi-final clash with Etoile du Sahel at the The National Stadium in Tokyo failed to sell out. More alarmingly, there were some 12,000 empty seats at Urawa's opening match against Iranian side Sepahan. A variety of factors contributed to this, not the least that Urawa were playing some 350 km from their base in Saitama, on a chilly weeknight at Toyota Stadium, against a team that they had beaten just two weeks earlier in the final of the AFC Champions League. Yet the empty seats made a mockery of FIFA's claim that including a Japanese side would increase local interest in the tournament.
Simply including a Japanese team in the hope of generating local interest overlooks Japan's obsession with status and glamour. Urawa's semi-final encounter with Milan may have drawn a near-capacity crowd to Yokohama International Stadium, but the overwhelming majority of local fans were there to see Milan. The pattern was continued for the 3/4 playoff between Urawa and Etoile, which kicked off in front of a near-empty stadium.
FIFA have announced an open tender from 2009 onwards for the bidding rights to host the Club World Cup, with the annual tournament widely expected to move to Portugal. Whether it includes a representative from Oceania remains to be seen.
Following Auckland City's insipid display at the 2006 edition, fellow New Zealand side Waitakere United failed to cover themselves in glory in this year's tournament, turning in a shambolic display in their 'playoff' against Iranian side Sepahan.
The Oceania Confederation has been weakened by Australia's defection to Asia, and with New Zealand's top side Wellington Phoenix plying their trade in the A-League - which falls under the jurisdiction of the Asian Football Confederation, Oceania look set to continue sending semi-professional sides to the Club World Cup, if in future they are offered the option of sending them at all.
FIFA boss Sepp Blatter continues to voice concerns about the standard of representatives from Oceania, yet in doing so he raises questions about the validity of the tournament as a whole. For many fans the Club World Cup represents little more than a reflection of FIFA's hubris, with the tournament often held in the same esteem as the much-maligned Confederations Cup.
If the Club World Cup is to continue without teams from Oceania, many wonder why Asian and African teams are also included, when economic and geographical differences put those teams so far behind their European and South American counterparts to begin with.
While such teams undoubtedly gain much-needed exposure and revenue from the tournament, FIFA finds itself in a Catch-22 situation, as it tries to balance a global fixture-list with the reality that the powerbase of football is still very much the heartland of Europe and South America.
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