Japan Football Association President Saburo Kawabuchi said Monday he will continue to lobby for world governing body FIFA to reverse a decision not to allow J. League champions to play in the Club World Cup.
The FIFA Executive Committee last week turned down a proposal from the Club World Cup organizing committee that this year's J. League champions be allowed to play in the tournament in Japan in December along with the club champions from the world's six confederations.
"We haven't given up on it and we'll continue to lobby for a berth (for the J. League champions) through talks with a number of people concerned. I've heard that the door still remains open," Kawabuchi said.
Soccer officials said the majority of the FIFA Executive Committee members insisted that the field of the Club World Cup be limited to the champions of the confederations. But the FIFA executives will discuss the issue again at a meeting in June.
Formerly known as the Club World Championship, the tournament was held in Japan last year but it failed to draw spectators because a host team was not involved.
Jubilo Iwata and Yokohama F Marinos both failed to qualify for the lucrative tournament after the J. League clubs were knocked out in the group stages of the Asian Champions League.
Saudi Arabia's Al Ittihad represented Asia as winners of the ACL, the continent's premier club competition.
FIFA staged the first world club championship in Brazil in 2000 but pulled the plug on the competition in 2001 after the collapse of marketing partner ISMM/ISL.
The revamped Club World Championship replaced the Toyota Cup that had been played in Japan between the champions of South America and Europe through 2004 for the unofficial title of the world's best club.