The eighth edition of the FIFA Club World Cup kicks-off on 8 December 2011 from Toyota, Japan, and the Cup final will take place on 18 December from Yokohoma. There will be eight games played during this mini-tournament. The defending champion is Internazionale Milano.

1. Playing Venues
• Toyota Stadium: Capacity of 45,000. (1)
• International Stadium Yokohoma: Capacity of 72,327. (2)

2. Seven Participating Teams
Six teams represent the club champions of their respective confederations and the Japanese side, Kashiwa Reysol, will compete as the host. With the exception of FC Barcelona and Auckland City FC who competed in 2006 and 2009, respectively, this will be the first tournament for the other teams. Santos FC won the Intercontinental Cup in 1962 and 1963. (3)


3. Provisional Team Rosters
Pelé was quoted by the Madrid sports daily, Marca, about the upcoming tournament. The Brazilian and Santos legend provided his thoughts about a potential final between Santos FC and FC Barcelona, along with an opinion about Neymar and Lionel Messi:

"Si no hay ningún desastre, el Santos y el Barcelona van a pasar a la final. Estoy seguro de que, si el Santos va a la final y jugándose a un partido, va a ser más duro para el Barcelona que para el Santos".

Pelé afirmó que "la única cosa" en la que el Barcelona supera al Santos es que "ha jugado cuatro años con el mismo equipo", mientras que el club brasileño no ha podido tener regularidad en las alineaciones por las lesiones de centrocampistas como Ganso o Arouca.

"Si se comparan individualmente, Neymar es mejor que Messi. Le pega bien con la zurda, con la diestra, es un excelente jugador. Tiene facilidad de salir para los dos lados, individualmente para mí es el mejor".

“If there is no disaster, Santos and Barcelona are going to make it to the final. I’m certain that, if Santos goes to the final and plays its game, it is going to be more difficult for Barcelona than Santos.”

Pele affirmed that ‘the only thing’ in which Barcelona is superior to Santos is that ‘they have played four years with the same team,’ while the Brazilian club hasn’t been able to maintain the same regularity with its lineups due to injuries to midfielders such as Ganso or Arouca.

“If you compare them individually, Neymar is better than Messi. He kicks well with his left, with his right, and is an excellent player. He can easily play on either side of the pitch. Individually, for me, he is the best.” (4)

Here is a link to a PDF file from FIFA for the provisional team rosters: Team Rosters (5)

4. Team Managers
Al-Sadd Sports Club: Jorge Fossati
Auckland City FC: Ramon Tribulietx
Club de Futbol Monterrey: Victor Manuel Vucetich
Esperance Sportive De Tunis: Nabil Maaloul
FC Barcelona: Josep Guardiola
Kashiwa Reysol: Nelsinho Baptista
Santos Futebol Club: Muricy Ramalho

5. Fixtures and Tournament Chart

Game 1: 08 Dec in Toyota: Kashiwa Reysol v. Auckland City FC at 1945.
Game 2: 11 Dec in Toyota: Winner of Game 1 v. CF Monterrey at 1600.
Game 3: 11 Dec in Toyota: Esperance Sportive De Tunis v. Al-Sadd Sports Club at 1930.
Game 4: 14 Dec in Toyota: Fifth Place: Loser of Game 2 v. Loser of Game 3 at 1630.
Game 5: 14 Dec in Toyota: Semifinal: Winner of Game 2 v. Santos FC at 1930.
Game 6: 15 Dec in Yokohoma: Semifinal: Winner of Game 3 v. FC Barcelona at 1930.
Game 7: 18 Dec in Yokohoma: Third Place: Loser of Game 5 v. Loser of Game 6 at 1630.
Game 8: 18 Dec in Yokohoma: Final: Winner of Game 6 v. Winner of Game 7 at 1930.

7. Match Officials (6)
CAF:
Noumandiez Doue of Cote d’Ivoire.
Djlbril Camara of Senegal.
Songuifolo Yeo of Cote d’Ivoire.

AFC:
Ravshan Irmatov of Uzbekistan.
Yuichi Nishimura of Japan.
Bakhadyr Kochkarov of Kyrghyzstan.
Toshiyuki Nagi of Japan.
Abdukhamidullo Rasulov of Uzbekistan.
Toru Sagura of Japan.

CONCACAF:
Joel Aguilar of El Salvador.
William Torres Mejia of El Salvador.
Juan Zumba of El Salvador.

CONMEBOL:
Enrique Osses of Chile.
Carlos Astroza of Chile.
Francisco Mondria of Chile.

Oceania:
Peter O’Leary of New Zealand.
Jan Hendrik Hintz of New Zealand.
Ravinesh Kumar of Figi.

UEFA:
Nicola Rizzoli of Italy.
Renato Faverani of Italy.
Andrea Stefani of Italy.



References
(1) FIFA World Club Cup: Destination: Toyota
(2) FIFA World Club Cup: Destination: International Stadium Yokohoma
(3) Intercontinental Cup: History
(4) “Pele: Neymar es mejor de Messi”; Marca.com; 30 November 2011
(5) FIFA World Club Cup: Provisional List of Players
(6) FIFA World Club Cup: Referees

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Steve Amoia is a freelance writer, book reviewer and translator from Washington, D.C. He is the publisher of World Football Commentaries and The Soccer Translator. You can follow Steve @worldfootballcm on Twitter.

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