Liga Deportiva Universitaria's remarkable penalty shoot-out victory over Brazilian giants Fluminense in the recent Copa Libertadores final will cause headaches in Japan. That's because as continental club champions, LDU Quito have won through to face the likes of English champions Manchester United and Mexican outfit Pachuca at the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup.

The 2009 and 2010 editions of the FIFA Club World Cup will be played in Dubai, and critics suggest that FIFA's desire to move the tournament away from Japan stems partly from a lack of local support. All three of the Club World Cup finals played at Yokohama International Stadium have drawn capacity crowds, yet the match-ups in those finals have been as follows;

Liverpool vs Sao Paulo

Barcelona vs Internacional

AC Milan vs Boca Juniors

To suggest that South American football is well regarded in Japan is true only to an extent. Certainly the J. League borrowed heavily from aspects of Brazilian and Argentinian football culture when Japan kicked-off its professional football league, and the biggest Brazilian and Argentinian teams are popular in Japan. Boca Juniors were well supported at last year's Club World Cup, but that was partly because current Urawa striker Naohiro Takahara once played for Boca, albeit briefly.

That fact that Liga de Quito have now booked their place in this year's Club World Cup will cause headaches for tournament organisers. Enticing local fans to the preliminary rounds of the competition was already a hard-sell, but FIFA have at least been able to rely on one European and one South American giant to sell tickets to semi-final fixtures. Now Liga de Quito will throw a spanner in the works, with the Ecuadorian club unheard of in Japanese football circles.

A Fluminense victory in the Copa Libertadores final would have been welcomed with open arms, given that Flu's powerful striker Washington scored 64 goals in just 85 J. League games for Tokyo Verdy and Urawa Reds. "Washington Returns" would have been the banner headline of the day, with the Japanese public no doubt keen to bask in the globe-trotting striker's reflected glory.

Liga de Quito will inspire no such headlines in Japan. Manchester United will invariably prove the biggest drawcard at the tournament - although the fake jersey sellers outside the National Stadium in Tokyo will groan in disbelief should Cristiano Ronaldo choose to move on, but even if a Japanese team manages to make it through to the semi-finals of the tournament, the prospect of a half-empty National Stadium looms large for what is supposedly a showpiece FIFA tournament.