Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted Manchester United's 12,000-mile round trip for the Fifa Club World Cup in Japan could harm his side's prospects of winning a third successive Premier League title in Yokohama.United face Liga de Quito of Ecuador in today's final here, where they are bidding to become the first British club to win the tournament since it was expanded in 2000. They return to Manchester tomorrow night and play away at Stoke at 12.45pm on Boxing Day. The champions could be nine points and two games adrift of Liverpool on their return, if the leaders beat Arsenal today. And Ferguson believes fatigue has already had an impact on his players in Japan.
"A lot of us are finding it difficult and struggling to sleep," the United manager said. "Towards the end of the semi-final on Thursday there were signs that jet-lag was having an effect on the players, the game was very open and loose in the last 20 minutes, but I think we will be in a better physical condition for the final. It is difficult to say what the impact will be when we get back home.
"Hopefully we will have enough recovery time to produce at Stoke. After the Inter-Continental Cup in 1999 we went back home and beat Everton 5-1 three days later, so who is to say what might happen? But we know we do have a task on our hands when we get back."
United are likely to be without Dimitar Berbatov against the Copa Libertadores champions, with the £30.75m striker suffering from the virus that ruled him out of the semi-final defeat of Gamba Osaka. "This will be more of a physical test for us," Ferguson added. "We've watched Liga de Quito's semi-final against Pachuca and, as you would expect from a South American team, they are resilient and powerful."
Sepp Blatter expects England to put forward a "strong" bid to host the 2018 World Cup. The world governing body have confirmed the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be decided at the same time and have allowed countries to bid for both. "England is a strong candidate, because it is a strong country in football," the Fifa president said.
Lord Triesman, England's World Cup bid team chairman, said: "The announcement of a dual process doesn't affect our planning at all. Our mission is to ensure we have the support of everyone around the country, so the world knows that England not only has the infrastructure to stage a tournament, but also the enthusiasm to make it the best possible event in World Cup history.
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