page_title: Intercontinental Cup (football)
section_title: Degradation
hierarchical_section_title: Intercontinental Cup (football) / History / Degradation
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Collectie / Archief&#160;: Fotocollectie Anefo Reportage / Serie&#160;: [ onbekend ] Beschrijving&#160;: Ajax-selectie presenteert zich aan de pers, staand v.l.n. Suurbier, Stuy, Keizer, Krol en Schilcher, zittend v.l.n.r Kleton, Mulder en Cruijff en [tekst afgebroken] Datum&#160;: 17 juli 1972 Trefwoorden&#160;: sport, voetbal Persoonsnaam&#160;: Cruijff, Johan, Keizer, Piet, Kleton, Gerry, Krol, Ruud, Mulder, Jan, Schilcher, Heinz, Stuy, Heinz, Suurbier, Wim Fotograaf&#160;: Verhoeff, Bert / Anefo Auteursrechthebbende&#160;: Nationaal Archief Materiaalsoort&#160;: Negatief (zwart/wit) Nummer archiefinventaris&#160;: bekijk toegang 2.24.01.05 Bestanddeelnummer&#160;: 925-7435
context_page_description: The Intercontinental Cup, also known as European/South American Cup, and also Toyota Cup from 1980 to 2004 for commercial reasons by agreement with the automaker, was an international football competition endorsed by the Union of European Football Associations and the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol, contested between representative clubs from these confederations, usually the winners of the UEFA Champions League and the South American Copa Libertadores. It ran from 1960 to 2004, when it was succeeded by the FIFA Club World Cup, with which it ran concurrently from 2000 to 2004.
  From its formation in 1960 to 1979, the competition was as a two-legged tie, with a playoff if necessary until 1968, and penalty kicks later. During the 1970s, European participation in the Intercontinental Cup became a running question due to controversial events in the 1969 final, and some European Cup-winning teams withdrew. From 1980, the competition was contested as a single match played in Japan and sponsored by multinational automaker Toyota, which offered a secondary trophy, the Toyota Cup.
context_section_description: Due to the brutality in the 1967 edition, FIFA was called into providing penalties and regulating the tournament. However, FIFA stated that it could not stipulate regulations in a competition that it did not organise. Though the competition was endorsed by UEFA and CONMEBOL, René Courte, FIFA's General Sub-Secretary, wrote an article shortly afterwards (1967) stating that FIFA viewed the competition as a "European-South American friendly match". Courte's statement was endorsed by then–FIFA president Sir Stanley Rous, who then stated that FIFA saw the Intercontinental Cup as a friendly match. After these controversial statements, Madrid newspaper ABC then pointed out that, though the Intercontinental Cup was not endorsed by FIFA, it was endorsed by UEFA and CONMEBOL, therefore being an "intercontinental jurisdiction" cup. However, with the Asian and North-Central-American/Caribbean club competitions in place, FIFA opened the idea of supervising the Intercontinental Cup if it included those confederations, which was met with a negative response from its participating confederations, UEFA and CONMEBOL. According to Stanley Rous, CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation had requested, in 1967, their participation in the Intercontinental Cup, which was rejected by UEFA and CONMEBOL. In 1970, the FIFA Executive Committee gathering put forward, unsuccessfully, a proposal for the expansion of the Intercontinental Cup into a Club World Cup with representative clubs of every existing continental confederation. Nevertheless, some European champions started to decline participation in the tournament after the events of 1969.
  Estudiantes would face Dutch side Feyenoord the following season, which saw the Europeans victorious. Oscar Malbernat ripped off Joop van Daele's glasses and trampled on them claiming that he was "not allowed to play with glasses". Dutch side Ajax, European champions of 1971, would decline to face Uruguay's Nacional due to violence in previous editions, which resulted in European Cup runners-up, Greek side Panathinaikos, participating. Nacional won the series 3–2 on aggregate.
  Ajax participated in 1972 against Independiente. The team's arrival at Buenos Aires was extremely hostile: Johan Cruyff received several death threats from Independiente's local fan firms. Due to the indifference from the Argentine police, Ajax manager Ştefan Kovács appointed an organised emergency security detail for the Nederlandse meester, headed by himself and team member Barry Hulshoff, described as a big and burly man. In the first leg, Cruyff opened the scoring in Avellaneda at the 5th minute. As a result, Dante Mircoli retaliated with a vicious tackle a couple of minutes later; Cruyff was too injured to continue and the Dutch team found themselves being assaulted with tackles and punches. Kovács had to convince his team to play on during half-time as his players wanted to withdraw. Ajax squeezed a 1–1 tie and followed up with a 3–0 trounce in Amsterdam to win the Cup. Although Ajax were the defending champions, they again declined to participate a year later after Independiente won the Libertadores again, leaving it to Juventus, European Cup runners-up, to play a single-match final won by the Argentines.
  Also in 1973, French newspaper L'Équipe, which helped to bring about the birth of the European Cup, volunteered to sponsor a Club World Cup contested by the champions of Europe, South America, Central and North America and Africa, the only continental club tournaments in existence at the time; the competition was to potentially take place in Paris between September and October 1974 with an eventual final to be held at the Parc des Princes. The proposal, supported by the South Americans, was dismissed due to the negativity of the Europeans. In 1974, João Havelange was elected FIFA president, having made the proposal, among others, of creating a multicontinental Club World Cup. In 1975, L'Équipe once again made its 1973  proposal, again to no avail. 
  West German club Bayern Munich also declined to play in 1974 as Independiente a
caption: Dutch team Ajax won the 1972 series v. Argentine club Independiente
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