Copa Rio (international tournament)  The Copa Rio ("Rio Cup") was the first intercontinental club football tournament, contested on two occasions in 1951 and 1952 in Brazil. The first edition (but also the second) was an unofficial international club tournament contested between eight teams from Europe and South America between 30 June and 22 July 1951 in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in the Pacaembu and Maracanã stadiums, respectively. Brazilian press at the time dubbed it a "club world cup", a title that would later be applied to the Intercontinental Cup (1960–2004) and eventually the FIFA Club World Cup, first held in 2000. The status of the competition as an official "world cup" is disputed, as 1951 winning club Palmeiras regard its championship team as the first ever club football world champions. In 2014, FIFA acknowledged the 1951 Copa Rio as "the first worldwide club competition and Palmeiras as its winner," however it was later clarified that they did not confer the competition with the same status as the currently active FIFA Club World Cup or the Intercontinental Cup (the only competition not organized directly by FIFA but which the FIFA Council has retroactively defined as a "world championship" equivalent to the Club World Cup). Officially, the Copa Rio is considered a friendly competition organised by the Brazilian Sports Confederation, with unofficial aid and authorization from FIFA, and not an assignee of the official world title. Two editions of the Copa Rio were held. Brazilian club Palmeiras won the 1951 tournament, and Fluminense, also from Brazil and co-organizer of the following edition, won the title in 1952. The competition was succeeded by another tournament, the Torneio Octogonal Rivadavia Corrêa Meyer, which was won by Vasco da Gama of Brazil. This tournament, however, was comprised predominantly of domestic teams (five Brazilian sides, and three foreign clubs), thus losing part of the intercontinental aspect of its successor. According to contemporary Brazilian newspapers "O Estado de São Paulo" and "Jornal do Brasil", and Spanish newspaper "El Mundo Deportivo", the original plan for the tournament was to invite the champion clubs of the Rio de Janeiro State League, São Paulo State League (the Brazilian national league was not formed until 1971, and the Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo state leagues were – and still are – the strongest state leagues in Brazil), as well as sides from Portugal, Uruguay, Italy, Sweden, Spain and England (the best-ranked nations at the 1950 FIFA World Cup, held in Brazil).