Marrakech (Morocco): Outsiders Raja Casablanca and Auckland City open the Club World Cup with a preliminary round game in Agadir tomorrow.
Raja owe their entry to the fact that the competition is being hosted by Morocco for the first time and they are the national champions, while Auckland represent the Oceania federation.
The winners will go through to the second round to take on Monterrey of Mexico, who are representing the North and Central American Federation with China's Guangzhou Evergrande up against Al Ahly of Egypt.
The winners of those two games then qualify for next week's semi-finals where European Champions Bayern Munich and Copa Libertadores winners Atletico Mineiro await them.
Auckland City, whose players mostly have full-time jobs outside of football, will start as underdogs against Raja Casablanca, but veteran midfielder Chris Bale believes they can pull off an upset having competed well against Spanish side Espanyol in a friendly last week before losing 1-0.
"We did quite well in the Espanyol match in Barcelona and I'm not afraid to say we dominated the first half of that game against a top team," he said.
"We've got enough about us to get over the line against Casablanca, we just need to play the way we play."
Auckland have appeared at the Club World Cup four times previously, finishing last on every occasion except 2009, when they beat UAE champions Al Ahli and then shocked African title-holders TP Mazembe in the play-off for fifth place.
For Raja it is a second appearance in the Club World Cup, the last coming 13 years ago when the competition was held for the first time in Brazil.
"It's a great memory for us," said club vice-president Jaafar Tahiri of the Brazil tournament.
"We played some fine football then and we only lost narrowly (3-2) to Real Madrid."
Since then, Raja have continued to enjoy success on the national stage, but have failed to go all the way again in the continental cup. The club's last major outing against a non-African side ended in a morale-sapping 8-0 defeat to Barcelona 18 months ago.
Raja are currently languishing in eighth place in the Moroccan first division and sacked coach M'Hamed Fakhir on November 29.
He was replaced by Faouzi Benzarti and the Tunisian coach said he was hopeful Raja could reach the second round.
"This is not the first time that I have taken over at a club who are struggling and going through a bad spell," he said.
"In any case we are full of hope that we will be able to win on Wednesday."
Draw for World Club Championship, hosted in Morocco and which runs from December 11-21,(kick-offs in GMT):
Preliminary round
December 11
At Agadir (19h30)
Raja Casablanca (MAR) v Auckland City (NZL)
Second round
December 14
At Agadir (16h00)
Guangzhou Evergrande (CHN) v Al Ahly (EGY)
At Agadir (1930)
Raja Casablanca/Auckland City v Monterrey (MEX)
Semi-finals
December 17
At Agadir (19h30)
Guangzhou/Al Ahly v Bayern Munich (GER)
December 18
At Marrakech (19h30)
Raja Casablanca/Auckland City/Monterrey (MEX) v Atletico Mineiro (BRA)
December 21
Final (1930)
At Marrakech.
