The Best Club In The World...

With Manchester United vs Liverpool this weekend, there seems to be a lot of talk about who is the biggest team in England. On twitter earlier I was discussing this idea, what makes a big team and what arguments are invalid when measuring the size of a club. During this mini rant I had I went on to compare clubs across Europe as well as clubs around the world. This isn't an argument I'm going to go into here. I don't like talking about "who is the biggest club", I think it's a bit of a stupid argument for people to have because, like I said, the arguments presented are often invalid.

However, I do think there should be a way in football to determine the best football club in the world. At the moment we have the European Champions League, arguably the biggest club football competition in the world. The 'arguably' part of that is something I feel is long overdue to be taken away. Not by saying for definite that the Champions League is the best club football competition, but by creating a new competition that would determine the best football team in the world.

Chelsea win the 2012 Champions League

The most vocal opposition to the idea of the Champions League being the greatest club football competition in the world would no doubt come from South America. In South America they have their own continental club football competition equivalent to the Champions League, and that's the Copa Libertadores. However, in Europe you wouldn't find many people who know the last winners of the Copa Libertadores, the most regular winners, and indeed who the best teams in South America are.

Corinthians win the 2012 Copa Libertadores

Currently there is a competition held every year in Tokyo, the FIFA Club World Cup, that takes the winners of six continental club competitions and puts them against each other. This usually does lead to a final involving the European Champions League holders and the South American Copa Libertadores holders. However, this tournament isn't held in high regard by football fans, and the winners generally aren't taken to be the best team in the world. Sometimes, a team like Barcelona, who many already believe to be the best team in the world, may win the competition, but they don't need this trophy to prove anything. When Barcelona played in the competition in 2011, had they lost the final I'm quite sure the majority of people in Europe would still consider them the greatest team in the world. This competition is more of a money making gimmick, and is not a suitable process for determining the greatest team in club football.

The FIFA Club World Cup.

You probably didn't even know

what it looks like

The South American teams that enter the Club World Cup do actually take the competition very seriously. This is because they want to go up against the best teams in Europe and prove their worth against them, and prove they're better than them. However, the teams from Europe rarely take the competition as seriously, and you can't really blame them as it interrupts their domestic season, and is also not really worth the effort for them to win a trophy that is not considered a major honour in Europe anyway.

My idea is that there should be a football tournament on the same scale as the current FIFA World Cup, but for club teams rather than internationals. A competition that would be held every four years, with the best teams from the six continents going against each other for one ultimate prize - to be named the best club football team in the world. I may be wrong, but I'm sure the popularity of this competition would be as equally high in Europe as it would be in South America and the rest of the world. A chance to see teams face each other who have never had the chance to go head to head before. Giving your team the chance to face teams you've only heard about, and never been able to watch on television regularly.

Of course, obvious problems arise when considering a competition such as this. The first question most people would ask would be how do teams qualify for it? Well, my idea (even though I'm sure people will find flaws in it straight away) would be to have a points system in the Champions League, Copa Libertadores and the other equivalent competitions, that ran over the four seasons prior to the Club World Cup. The finals of the tournament would apply the same format as the international World Cup, with 32 teams starting out in 8 groups. The amount of teams from each confederation that would qualify for the competition is debatable, however, my suggestion would be that 12 teams from Europe would qualify, 12 teams from South America, and 2 clubs each from the other 4 continents, making the total of 32 teams.

Qualification would work like this: you are awarded points for games in the Champions League or equivalent competition. But looking at the Champions League as an example, you would only be able to win points once you were in the group stage, and you also only get points for winning. The reason preliminary rounds don't count is because that would be awarding a team for their league position and not their performance in the actual competition. Also, points aren't awarded for draws simply because this would give teams a greater incentive to win, particularly in the group stages. But this would also apply to the knockout rounds, were the reward would come for getting through to the next round. 

So with that being said, the points system would work like this... A win in the group stages would be one point, a win in the first knockout round would be two points, a quarter final win is 3 points, a win in the semi final is 4 points, and for winning the final you'd earn 10 points. The reason there is such a large increase in points from the semis to the final is because the semi final has two legs, so there is an opportunity there to gain 8 points, and the final has to be worth more than the semi final. 

Qualification would take place over four years prior to the competition, with the last year for qualification being the season the finals take place. Therefore the actual Club World Cup would be up to date with who are the best teams at the time. The finals can not take place in the same year as a World Cup or European Championships, so they would have to take place a year before or after the World Cup. As we are currently in a year before the World Cup, I have made an example of who would have qualified for the tournament from Europe if it would have taken place in 2011, based on the points system mentioned above.

I've actually missed the 12th European team off, that would have been Porto who had 15 points. So I think from looking at this table you can see that the points system is fair, with all the Champions League winners making it to the finals.

Applying this system to the other competitions you would get a fair sample of teams from each continent to take part. The finals would start off with 8 groups. As there are more than 8 teams from Europe and South America there would have to be groups with clubs from the same continent in, but you would have the top European team in a group with the lowest South American team, and the rest of the continents are unseeded. So every group would involve a European team playing a South American team, and I think this would be of great interest to the world of football. 

I don't know whether many people feel the same way as me, but I personally enjoy club football a lot more than international football. I think if this competition was introduced it would get more interest than the international World Cup. If my team weren't playing in the competition I'd still watch it with great interest, the same way I do the Champions League or World Cup when my teams aren't in them.

Anyway this was just some thoughts I had I'm not sure many people will like the idea, I am sure that a lot of people will find flaws in the competition though, so let me know if you do. Thanks for reading 

@adamheath