FIFA Club World Championship

[Ex Shelton Seagull]

The all new Club Championship will be launched in 2005. Probably will be held between 17-31st July and hosted by a North American country (USA or Mexico, I reckon Mexico City is the likely venue). Each confederation will put forward it's champion club to compete in the tournament. You get a pretty cool 8.7 million quid if you win the whole thing which is nearly as much as you get for reaching the final of the European Champions League.
Using the current champion clubs the line up would look something like this:

Prelim Game 1
LD Alajuelense (Costa Rica/North America)
vs
Perth Glory (Australia/Oceania)

Prelim Game 2
Enyimba (Nigeria/Africa)
vs
Al Ain (United Arab Emirates/Asia)

Semi-Finals

Prelim Game 1 Winner
vs
AC Milan (Italy/Europe)

Prelim Game 2 Winner
vs
Boca Juniors (Argentina/South America)

Final

AC Milan vs Boca Juniors

Personally, I can't wait until the Oceania Champions Cup in 2005 hosted by Tahiti! Sun, sand, and of course football. Featuring:

Perth Glory (Australia)
Tafea (Vanuatu)
Pirae (Tahiti)
Arenikau (Cook Islands)
Manumea (American Samoa, er maybe)
Ba (Fiji)
Strickland Brothers (Samoa)

And the champions of;
New Zealand
Solomon Islands
Tonga
Papua New Guinea

That is a festival of football right there! Our very own Paul Reid won the thing back in 2001 with Wollongong City Wolves, scored a few as well.

 

[Crawley Boy]

The all new Club Championship will be launched in 2005. Probably will be held between 17-31st July and hosted by a North American country (USA or Mexico, I reckon Mexico City is the likely venue).

Er, no, FIFA have confirmed that a revamped Club World Championship will be held in Tokyo from December 2005.

World club event goes ahead

 

[Ex Shelton Seagull]

Oh well. Guess they had to compensate Japan for taking away the Championship game. I read in one of their previous press releases that CONCACAF were lobbying to host the whole shebang. Big incentive for the J league teams left in the Asian Champions League to push on and win the thing. Home advantage and disinterested European teams mean they could probably reach the final at least.