December 19 – Chuck Blazer, the chairman of the organising committee for the FIFA Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi, has defended the format of this year’s competition, which was won today by European champions Barcelona.
Sergio Farias, the coach of Asian champions Pohang Steelers, had complained that Barcelona and South American champions Estudiantes were seeded straight into the semi-finals while the other teams had to start the tournament earlier.
Farias said:”The fact that the European champions and South American champions play later on in the tournament is a bit unfair.
“They get a bye straight into the semi-finals.
“That is an advantage.
“I feel the format should be changed and all teams should play from the beginning of the tournament.”
Pohang Steelers had lost to Estudiantes in the semi-final 2-1 after having three players sent-off, including captain Hwang Jae-won and goalkeeper Shin Hwa-yong.
Estudiantes then lost 2-1 in the final with Barcelona’s Argentinian international Lionel Messi (pictured) scoring the winning goal in extra-time before a crowd of 43,050 to ensure that the Spanish side have won all six competitions they have contested during 2009.
Blazer, who is also a member of FIFA’s ruling Executive Committee, dismissed the criticism.
He said: “When we created this competition, it was with the understanding that we were taking an existing competition [the Intercontinental Cup] and expanding it to become a big world competition, to include the other Confederations.
“The previous competition had Europe and South America playing on a single date in December.
“By expanding it to allow teams from other Confederations to participate, we realised that we’d need to create a system whereby those European and South American teams would only miss one weekend [of domestic action].
“This was an agreement that we made back then in order to enable this competition to take place.
“At this point it is the current format and I expect it to be the format for the next few years.
“It’s not something that is prejudicial [towards the teams from Europe and South America].
“It’s something that has enabled the other teams to be involved.”
Related stories
December 2009: UAE hoping to impress with FIFA Club World Cup