Summary
WHEN the winners of this week's Club World Championship are declared, will the format of the tournament itself be among them? The third of Fifa president Sepp Blatter's accident-prone attempts to instigate a club competition to accompany the World Cup and rival the Uefa Champions League begins this morning in Tokyo, after Manchester United controversially opted out of the FA Cup only to embarrass themselves in the inaugural edition in Brazil in 2000, then a followup scheduled for Spain in 2003 foundered due to financial difficulties.
Champions League winners Liverpool fly out to join the madness this Thursday, undaunted by such unedifying precedents. Their semi- final meeting against either Deportivo Saprissa of Costa Rica or Sydney FC will be the Anfield club's 30th match of the season, and we are still not even halfway into December.See the full content of this document
Extract
Where Only Champions Tread
The current format of the tournament - more properly called the Fifa Club World Championship Toyota Cup Japan 2005 - is decidedly less likely to inflict hara kiri on your season than its predecessor. The tournament, which replaces the one-off fixture formerly known as the Intercontinental Cup, or World Club Cup, involves the six preeminent clubs from each of the six football confederation...
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