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LIVERPOOL FC: PARRY: WE WANT TO BE WORLD CHAMPIONS

/noticias.info/ Many questions have been asked since we won the UEFA Champions League about our participation in the revitalised "FIFA Club World Championship TOY0TA Cup Japan 2005" in December.
The Rick Parry Column

There has been a school of thought that the tournament is untimely, coming right in the middle of a marathon Premier League campaign and forcing us to embark on a potentially tiring trip to Tokyo.

When FIFA formally revealed the competition format at Anfield last week, the inevitable questions were fired at Rafa Benitez as to whether our involvement might have a negative effect on the club's push to move up the table at home.

Parry on winning in Japan
This is probably the hardest competition in the world to qualify for. Winning the Champions League is a massive challenge. Having achieved this feat, we can now prove ourselves on a world stage and whenever I talk to Liverpool players who played in the former Toyota Cup, I sense their disappointment and frustration that they were never successful. I have a real understanding of their annoyance that they somehow didn't take the competition seriously enough.
Rafa's answer reflected my views. Now that we are involved, we are focused on this competition and the winning of the trophy. We are a stronger team than last year. Having claimed the European Cup and the Super Cup, we are now hungry to make it a very special treble.

I look at it this way. This is probably the hardest competition in the
world to qualify for. Winning the Champions League is a massive challenge. Having achieved this feat, we can now prove ourselves on a world stage and whenever I talk to Liverpool players who played in the former Toyota Cup, I sense their disappointment and frustration that they were never successful.

More than that, I have a real understanding of their annoyance that they somehow didn't take the competition seriously enough.

I've just read Phil Thompson's new autobiography. He was captain when we faced South American champions Flamengo in Japan back in 1981 at a time when the competition had just two competing clubs. Again, it was a long and arduous journey for the club, with a stop-over on that occasion in Alaska.

Bob Paisley would later admit that he didn't take it seriously enough as a competitive game. It was more about doing the right thing and Phil reveals how Bob's honesty came through when he admitted that his preparation put the players in totally the wrong frame of mind for a match that we eventually lost 3-0.

It was a demoralising defeat and the fact that the lads have never forgotten it is a pointer to how we should approach things this time round. Of course, six teams will be competing for the trophy on this occasion with Liverpool seeded into the semi-finals alongside South American Champions Sao Paulo. The other teams in this truly global affair are the champions of Asia (Saudi Arabia's Al Ittihad), African champions (Egypt's Al Ahly), North and Central American champions (Deportivo Saprissa) and Oceana champions (Sydney).

I spent two days in Zurich this week meeting all of the tournament
representatives. Contrary to some newspaper reports, I was not at the
much-publicised Soccerex meeting in Dubai or the G14 summit of leading clubs in Milan although we are members of that elite group.

It was interesting to meet our Club World Championship rivals and compare notes. They were a mixed bunch. Sao Paulo arrived with a large entourage while Sydney possibly only had one guy present. What came over loud and clear was that FIFA are taking the event really seriously and we have to do the same to show respect to our army of Asian fans. We have tremendous support in the Far East, highlighted during recent tours toThailand and Hong Kong.

FIFA actually brought the impressive Club World Championship TOYOTA Cup to Anfield and I watched Steven Gerrard's reaction when it was unveiled. Suddenly it highlighted the challenge and the prize as well as the fact that we are representing the whole of Europe following our triumph in Turkey. We hope to make some new friends and bring the trophy home.

Parry on what Japan trip means
There are many reasons why it is important to be in a competition like this. We are looking for long-term investment to take us to the next level and the more successful we are on the pitch, the more successful we will be off it. It's a self-fulfilling situation. It reminds people that we are the European Champions and this is a great platform to generate interest in Liverpool FC.
There are many reasons why it is important to be in a competition like this. We are looking for long-term investment to take us to the next level and the more successful we are on the pitch, the more successful we will be off it. It's a self-fulfilling situation. It reminds people that we are the European Champions and this is a great platform to generate interest in Liverpool FC. We have plans for the stadium, plans for the team and plans to win more trophies with the Club World Championship next in line. notas_de_prensa_archivo