If Manchester United’s hopes of retaining the Barclays Premier League title are, as some say, going west in the Far East, Sir Alex Ferguson, their manager, would not hear of it yesterday. Rather than make excuses or bemoan United’s fortune at being required to represent Europe in the Club World Cup in Japan, Ferguson gave his most robust defence of the competition yet and announced his desire to be similarly distracted this time next year, when the tournament moves to the United Arab Emirates.

Unlike many observers, Ferguson has always had time for inter-continental competition and acknowledges its part in football’s history and United’s, too. He remains the only manager to win an intercontinental trophy with an English club, when United defeated a Palmeiras team coached by Luiz Felipe Scolari in the now defunct Toyota Cup in 1999, and recalled that United were also the first English team to compete, losing to Estudiantes de la Plata, of Argentina, over two legs in 1968.

Since then, English football has contrived to blend disdain and defeat in equal measures. Disrespectful no-shows by Liverpool in 1977 and 1978 and Nottingham Forest in 1979 were followed by three defeats, Forest by Nacional, of Uruguay, in 1980, Liverpool by Flamengo, of Brazil, in 1981 and Aston Villa by Peñarol, of Uruguay, in 1982. It is Ferguson’s intention to set the record straight by marshalling United to make an estimable progression from champions of England to champions of Europe and finally champions of the world.

He is not aided by Fifa, football’s world governing body, which has again set its tournament organisational capabilities to dog’s dinner mode, incorporating an unwieldy seven teams and a strange system of pre-qualifiers that had matches taking place while United were still involved in the bustle of the Premier League at the weekend. In the circumstances, then, it is left to Ferguson to lend the Club World Cup gravitas, by emphasising its virtues.

“The nitty-gritty of this is that in 30 years, I hope people will look back in the record books and see ‘Manchester United: world champions’,” he said. “That is what this football club is about and that is why it is important for us to win it. A trophy like that adds prestige to a club.

“Playing different opposition does not do us any harm, either, so that is exciting, but our biggest incentive for being here is that this is the world championship. We cannot win the Premier League in December, but we can become world champions, so our aim is to do that first and the rest maybe later. Yes, there is a bit of a handicap coming here while the league is going on, but that is what happens when you are successful. We’re here because we won the European Cup, so I hope we are in Abu Dhabi next year because that will mean we will have done it again. As far as I am concerned, without any question the benefits of being here outweigh what is happening in the Premier League.”

Ferguson only sees the tournament growing in importance, so it was interesting to note that he is not in favour of every radical proposal to broaden the global nature of the club game. The 39th fixture, the controversial international round of matches that would result in an extra Premier League game for each club, was given short shrift. “If you look at our domestic programme, I think it is impossible,” Ferguson said. “I don’t think there ever should be a 39th game and I do not believe there will be.”

United have a final training session in Yokohama tomorrow before playing their first match, against Gamba Osaka, the champions of Asia. Ferguson has travelled with a squad of 23, so he is likely to select a slightly understrength team for that match, in the hope of saving his big guns for the final, against the winners of the semi-final between Liga de Quito, the first Ecuadorean champions of South American, and Pacucha, of Mexico.