David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and their 1999 Manchester United team-mates are FINALLY recognised by Fifa as the world club champs
The Red Devils can now officially call themselves the planet's champions after the Fifa council agreed to recognise the winners of the Intercontinental Cup between 1960-2004
DAVID BECKHAM and his all-conquering Manchester United treble-winning team-mates have FINALLY been confirmed as world champions.
The Red Devils were officially recognised with the honour this morning by Fifa... 18 years after achieving the feat.
World football's governing body have now decided that all winners of the former Intercontinental Cup, which ran from 1960 to 1980, will now be recognised as club world champs for the respective year they won the tournament.
And that means that United, who defeated Brazilian side Palmeiras courtesy of a Roy Keane goal in Tokyo, can now officially be known as the 1999 world champions.
The Intercontinental Cup was a competition contested between representative clubs from Uefa and CONMEBOL.
The winners of the Champions League and the South American version, Copa Libertadores, met each other to determine the best team on the planet.
The tournament was scrapped in 2004 and replaced with the Fifa World Cup.
Real Madrid and AC Milan were Europe's biggest success stories in the tournament, joined by Uruguayan duo Penarol and Nacional and Argentine giants Boca Juniors as three times winners.
'GREEN LIGHT' Manchester United transfer news: Red Devils boosted as target Gareth Bale ‘given green light’ to leave Real Madrid
However, up until today Fifa had not officially recognised winners of the old competition as club world champions... until now.
Beckham and Keane are joined by a host of other big stars who can now class themselves as the planet's best.
LATEST MANCHESTER UNITED NEWS
The rest of the Class of 92 were also involved in Sir Alex Ferguson's squad at Tokyo's National Stadium on 30 November 1999.
Gary Neville was at right-back, Ryan Giggs was on the opposite flank to Becks with Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes between them.
Phil Neville was named on the bench but failed to get onto the pitch.
There were also some names that you might have forgotten, with the likes of flop goalkeeper Massimo Taibi and Ronnie Wallwork also amongst the substitutes.
And SunSport's very own columnist Danny Higginbotham was also sat alongside them.
Since the name change United have gone on to win it again in 2008, securing the Fifa Club World Cup thanks to Wayne Rooney's strike against Ecuadorian outfit LDU Quito.
BET £10 GET A FREE £30 BET WITH SUN BETS
MOST READ IN FOOTBALL
