It is a pretty stupid competition, I have no idea why European sides even bother turning up.

It's a trophy.

So, anyone catch Benitez's postmatch comments/ultimatum?

Prestige. It's not the competition, it's the title that sounds important and big.

No, what did he say?


Yeah, I suppose. Just seems more of an inconvenience than anything.

clicky for english translation.

This fish suspects the ultimatum will go over like a lead balloon with Moratti.

The guy is simply unbelievable. His side, the strongest Inter side for half a century (which he is busy turning into a mid-table team), has just beaten a Congolese side and he has the nerve to set ultimatums... he demands, that's right, demands four-five new players asap, and threatens to leave if this ultimatum is not met.
It's basically Liverpool all over again: he makes a huge mess out of it, blames it on anyone but himself and the solution is always the same, he needs new players.

I can't imagine how anyone would want to hire him after this.

Indeed.

PS to Locke -- Chickens rule, donkeys drool. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/96.gif)

Thanks.

I've no idea why Inter hired him, just a bad, bad coach.

Corrected. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/innocent.gif) He's not even a coach, you'll believe this if you follow his pre-and-post match comments. The man is a stupid dud, and got really lucky winning the 2005 CL final and the world thinks he is a coach. Sure there may be worse coaches than him, but Rafa is at the very bottom of the pile when it comes to top flight football.

I think it's a decent competition, all the continental club winners clashing for a final global trophy. I see nothing stupid about it. Inter this season, and Milan in 2007, had quite high regards about it.

I just think it's a joke. For starters it affects the league schedule, it's not really a prestigious tournement, it's been going for, what, 5 years? It's not competitive and it's incredibly dull. It's just as pointless as any other similar thing like the community Sheild, Italian Super Cup, European Super Cup, etc. FIFA are just seemingly desperate to do anything to please the Eastern World lately.

I'd rather Milan not enter it or send the U18s team.

This post has been edited by kurtsimonw: Dec 19 2010, 04:10 PM

Part of it is Blatter's desier to make Fifa competitions as popular as UEFA competitions, I think. But the competition itself, in one form or another, has been around at least a couple of decades -- until a couple of years ago, it was played in Japan.

The competition has been going on for decades, Kurt, not five years. Only the format and name has changed. And teams aim at winning it more than any of the trophies you mentioned.

Yeah the Intercontinental Cup has been around for a while, between Europe and South America (which was still pointless anyway), but then to ake a new competition just to add more teams into it and try and make a big deal of it the way they're doing. Eh, I just don't see the point in it.

Not true, X-Off, it's a new competition. The Intercontinental Cup officially finished in 2004 the Club World Cup is a new competition. Which is why you will find that both the Club World Cup and Intercontinental Cup both happened in 2000 - because they aren't the same thing.

This post has been edited by kurtsimonw: Dec 19 2010, 04:31 PM

On the paper, yes. But generally speaking, the Club World Cup is simply a continuation of the Intercontinental Cup. I don't care of the differences, really, as long as the winner is crowned 'Champions of the World'.