FIFA's proposed world club championship is likely to involve teams from Asia and Africa as well as Europe and South America, we look at how the Champions League format is spreading around the word. Justin McCurry reports from Asia, while Alan Duncan examines the situation in Africa
The Asian club championship has some way to go in terms of sponsorship, prestige and public and media interest before it can rival similar competitions in Europe and South America.
World Cup hosts of the immediate past and future lost all their games in France. Rich Zahradnik & Sam Wallace sift the debris
USA I sat in my living room on July 4th safe from Paris and the Germans, safe from Nantes and the Yugoslavs, and, praise to the heavens, safe from Lyon and the Iranians. I watched the day’s two quarter-final matches as any American fan should expect to watch them, a neutral connoisseur enjoying some of the best in the game (Argentina, Holland, Croatia) along with some of the luckiest (Germany).
Japan will play in a World Cup for the first time in their history. Sam Wallace claims the achievement will have a knock-on effect through the country
The Adidas advert where Beckham, Gazza and Del Piero play against clones of themselves has a different twist in Japan. At the end the winning goal is scored by Japan’s international midfielder Hiroshi Nanami. In the final frame Nanami tries to exchange shirts with his double who instead demands Nanami’s boots. The irony is that probably the only player who recognised Nanami in that team of superstars was the player himself. But all this might change after France 98. Here in Asia the economic miracle has at last been succeeded by its sporting cousin: Japan have qualified for their first World Cup.