Milk Cup
- For sponsorship reasons the English Football League Cup was also named "Milk Cup" between 1982 and 1986.
The Milk Cup is an international youth football tournament held annually in Northern Ireland. The cup matches are mainly played in the Coleraine/north coast area of Northern Ireland. The cup is run on a single match knock-out basis. It has three different sections, with entrants divided into age categories:
- Elite - Under 19's - national sides
- Premier - U16's - club sides and national sides
- Junior - U14's - club sides and national sides
Clubs and national teams from anywhere in the World may compete.
The Milk Cup began in 1983 with sixteen teams participating at an Under 16 (Premier) level. Motherwell F.C. from Scotland were the first winners. It was founded by Jim Weir, Victor Leonard and Bertie Peacock.
The competition was extended in 1985 when an extra age group, the Under 14 (Junior) section was introduced and again the first champions were from Scotland, as Rangers F.C. won the Milk Cup at that age level.
The Under 19 (Elite) section was introduced in 1995 with the Welsh finishing the tournament as winners.
Many great players in international football have taken part in the Milk Cup, players such as David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Wayne Rooney have all competed at some level Milk Cup. In the Football World Cup 2002 there were 30 Milk Cup veterans playing.
To celebrate the competition's silver jubilee, a friendly match took place between Northern Ireland and two-time junior section winners Everton F.C. at the Coleraine Showgrounds on July 14th 2007. Everton won the tie 2-0.
Previous Winners
So many great players started showing their talents at the Northern Ireland Milk Cup such as Joe Cole, David Beckham, Alan Morton, Michael Owen.
There have also been some very famous guests present at the tournament:
CHIEF GUESTS AT OPENING CEREMONY:
1983 Harry Cavan
1984 Peter Doherty
1985 Martin O'Neill
1986 Harry Cavan
1987 Iam McFaul
1988 Danny Blanchflower
1989 Ernie Walker
1990 John Lynn
1991 Martin Buchan
1992 Bertie Peacock
1993 Billy Bingham
1994 Sir Alex Ferguson
1995 Joe Royle
1996 Denis Law
1997 Pat Jennings
1998 Craig Brown
1999 Ian Rush
2000 Graeme Souness
2001 Peter Beardsley
2002 Mark Hughes
2003 Branco
2004 David Humphreys
2005 Brian McClair
2006 Lawrie Sanchez
Media coverage
Some Milk Cup matches are broadcast on BBC Two Northern Ireland, made available to the rest of the UK via BBCi and some other Milk Cup matches are broadcast online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/milkcup
External links
See also
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