WEEKLY WHINE

Club football worldwide

The Asian Football Confederation has recently accepted a plan for a new club football tournament, the Asian Super League. The Super League would replace the three club competitions that the AFC currently runs: the Asian Club Championship, the Asian Cup Winners' Cup, and the Asian Super Cup. With this news, we figured it was time to examine some of the club events that are going on around the football world.

The longtime leader in club football, of course, has been the Union of European Football Associations, with its leading competition the UEFA Champions League. Matches in the UCL are seen worldwide, even in the United States. It extends through most of the European football season, namely from September through to May. This gives club sides the opportunity to play in their own leagues, in their national cup tournaments, and in the UCL all at once. Held since 1956, the UCL now includes thirty two clubs from across Europe.

UEFA also runs three other club competitions. The UEFA Cup includes a variety of clubs: half of the teams eliminated from the UCL's first round, national champions who don't qualify for the UCL, and some cup winners; it has absorbed the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. The UEFA Cup winner faces the UCL winner in a single match for the UEFA Super Cup. Finally, the UEFA Intertoto Cup isn't really a cup at all. It's held during the summer with sixty teams, none of whom win. The Intertoto Cup finishes with three clubs that go on to the UEFA Cup.

Unsurprisingly, most of the other confederations' club competitions are based upon UEFA tournaments. The Confédération Africaine de Football has its own Champions League, a CAF Cup, and a CAF Cup of Cup Winners. Each is based vaguely upon its UEFA counterpart. Last year's CAF Champions League final, played as a home and away series, saw Ghana's Hearts of Oak defeat Tunisia's Esperance 5-2 aggregate in December. The second leg in Accra was marred by rioting late in the match. Oddly, Esperance's goalkeeper Chokri El Ouaer cut himself with debris thrown onto the field, hoping to have the match abandoned. The match's fallout led CAF to ban Hearts of Oak from playing at home in the 2001 CAF Champions League, and to ban El Ouaer from this year's tournament altogether.

In the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol, the Copa Libertadores is currently under way. Argentina's Boca Juniors are the defending champions of CONMEBOL's top tournament. The Copa Mercosur is contested amongst teams in the southern nations of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay, whilst the Copa Merconorte features teams in the northern nations of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela along with some North American clubs as well.

Unlike UEFA and AFC, which are trying to merge competitions, the Football Confederation is currently adding more tournaments to its list. For some time it has had only one club competition, the Champions Cup. It is contested by national league winners and runners up; the Los Angeles Galaxy of MLS won the 2000 edition in JAN 2001. They knocked off their arch nemeses, the Washington DC United, in the semifinals. The new competition in CONCACAF is the Giants Cup, starring teams that lead in attendance. Its first edition will begin on WED 07 MAR 2001 with first round matches in the Caribbean and Central America. The final four will be played in LA. In 2003, a third tournament will begin. The Clubs Cup will feature the first and second place finishers in the two 2001 tournaments and the two 2002 tournaments, a total of eight teams.

The leading tournament in the Oceania Football Confederation is the Oceania Club Championship, won by the Wollongong Wolves of Australia in JAN 2001.

Finally, the AFC is set to combine the Cup Winners' Cup with the Club Championship. These tournaments have been held in parallel with similar timing to the UEFA tournaments, with the winners facing off for the Asian Super Cup. The new proposal in the AFC seeks to merge these into the Asian Super League, a tournament for elite and amateur Asian teams alike.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about club football is that there has only been one worldwide club championship competed thus far. The FIFA Club World Championship was first held in Brazil last year, a gripping all-Brazil final match between Corinthians [São Paulo] and homestanders Vasco da Gama [Rio de Janeiro] going to Corinthians on penalties. The twelve participants at Spain 2001 were decided at the various confederations' club tournaments over the past year. They will be drawn into their three first round groups on TUE 06 MAR 2001. The host clubs will be Real Madrid and Deportivo La Coruña, and Turkey's Galatasaray SK will also represent UEFA. Al-Hilal [Saudi Arabia], Jubilo Iwata [Japan], Zamalek [Egypt], Palmeiras [Brazil], and CD Olimpia [Honduras] also make the trip to Spain along with the Galaxy, the Wolves, Boca Juniors, and Hearts of Oak.