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Mitigating factors New century opens with first world club championship
Posted: Monday December 27, 1999 07:41 PM
As the old century draws to a close, it's curious to note there's never been an official, undisputed world club champion. Yes, we've had the annual Intercontinental Cup to crown the unofficial world champs. But that involves only one team from Europe and one from South America -- hardly representative of world football. So when eight teams from across the globe contest the inaugural FIFA Club World Championship in Brazil in January, we will emerge with the planet's first, unquestioned and legitimate king of clubs. Or will we? Manchester United is the European and Intercontinental Cup champion. Thus they start as favorites for the new tournament. But United's towering Dutch defender Jaap Stam has issued a word of warning, claiming Brazilian and Mexican sides in this competition will be at a distinct advantage. Stam said that the heat will be a major factor, pointing out that his old team, Cambur Leeuwarden, once went to Mexico for a pre-season tour and found the temperatures to be unbearable. Talking in Manchester United's official club magazine, Stam said: "We kicked off at three in the afternoon, the same time as the world team championship games are starting in Brazil. The Mexicans were running around the pitch doing tricks, but after 15 minutes we couldn't keep up with them. The Brazilian and Mexican teams in this tournament will have a real advantage." Then there's the illness factor.
Stam heard worrying stories from his Dutch colleagues when they returned from two friendly internationals in Brazil in 1999. He claims the whole squad was struck down by illness at some time during the two-week stay. Even though they took their own water and chef, sickness quickly spread, and Stam said: "It affected their fitness a lot." Which all sounds like good news for the two home teams, Vasco de Gama and Corinthians, and the Mexicans of Necaxa. Real Madrid of Spain, Al-Nasr of Saudi Arabia, South Melbourne of Australia, and Raja Casablanca of Morocco, round out the entrants representing the best of the football federations worldwide. The heat should be something Al-Nasr, Raja and even Melbourne can surely take in their stride -- leaving the European contingent to struggle. As for the food and water, cast-iron stomachs are a must if what Stam says is true. Illness could result in weakness and sap teams not only of energy but title hopes. So the playing field isn't exactly level after all as we search for our first ever official world club champions. The seething sun and buoyant bacteria are likely to play all-too-big a part. But as we can't put an asterisk by the side of the eventual champions -- denoting they won only because the others over-heated or vomited their way out of the tournament -- then we'll have to hope that the first world club champions will be worthy of the honor for pure football achievement and not for mere geographic, atmospheric and culinary familiarity. Phil Jones is a co-host of "World Sport," the international sports show that airs live on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN International.
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