Rio De Janeiro: Former Brazil captain Zico reacted angrily on Tuesday after FIFA apparently declined to recognise the Flamengo side in which he played as world club champions in 1981.
"It's another of those controversies involving players, supporters and the media which are decided by people sitting in an office," Zico, now coach of Turkish club Fenerbahce, told the Estado News Agency in an interview.
Flamengo won the South American Libertadores Cup in 1981, beating Chile's Cobreloa in a stormy final, and then hammered European champions Liverpool 3-0 in the Intercontinental Cup final played in Tokyo.
"There's nothing to argue about. We took part in a very difficult Libertadores, we played European champions, as the representatives of South America, and we won," he said. "What else is there to say?"
Soccer's governing body FIFA ruled at a meeting in Japan on Saturday it would only officially recognise the winners of the club world championship it has organised itself.
FIFA has so far held four club world championships, one played in Brazil in 2000 and then three held in Japan from 2005 onwards.
"With respect to the history of the FIFA Club World Cup and intercontinental club competitions in years gone by, such as the Copa Rio in the 1950s, the FIFA Executive Committee endorsed the view that the first edition of this competition was held in 2000 in Brazil where Corinthians became the very first FIFA club world champions," said FIFA in a statement. "Other tournaments are not considered official FIFA events."
Until 2004, the champions of Europe and South America met annually to decide what was widely regarded as the world club championship, although the title was never recognised by FIFA.
The match was played on a home-and-away basis from 1960 until 1979 but, after several troubled games in South America, the match lost credibility and several European Cup winners refused to play.
From 1980 until 2004, a one-off match was played in Japan. Zico said: "I don't think there's anything to say about this. Anyone who follows football knows that we went to Japan, as did Liverpool, for the world club championship final."
"I consider myself champion, as do our supporters. For me, something which is decided like this, in an office, does not count, football is played on the field. Nobody can take away this title from Flamengo or any of the other clubs which won it."
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