CONCERNING TOYOTA SPONSORSHIP OF
THE TOYOTA EUROPEAN/SOUTH AMERICAN CUP (THE TOYOTA CUP)

The Japan Football Association (JFA) will release an outline of the Toyota Cup at 3:30 p.m. today (October 12).

The Toyota Cup is a soccer match pitting the club soccer champions of Europe (winners of the European Champion Clubs Cup) against the champions of South America (winners of the South American Clubs Cup) to determine the top team in the world. The soccer federations of Europe (Union des Associations Européennes de Football―UEFA) and South America (Confederatión Sudamericana de Fútbol―CONMEBOL), regional branches of the international soccer federation (Fédération Internationale de Football Association―FIFA), organize the preliminary events in their respective continents.

FIFA has organized the club team soccer championship match between the European and South American champions every year since 1960 on a home-and-away basis, alternating between stadiums in Europe and South America. Over the years, however, the intense rivalry and professional pride of the teams involved has led to fierce and often violent confrontations, causing some teams in Europe to refuse to participate in the match. For this reason, it was decided, beginning last year, to hold the match in a neutral country.

Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. and Toyota Motor Sales Co., Ltd. agreed to sponsor the event which is now held in Japan, to provide pleasure for sports fans all over the world regardless of their nationalities. The match was then renamed "The Toyota Cup."

The first Toyota Cup was held in February this year in Tokyo at the National Olympic Stadium, between the European champion, Nottingham Forest of England, and the South American champion, Nacional Montevideo of Uruguay. Nacional Montevideo was the victor by a score of 1-0.