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

Year	Elite	Premier	Junior
1983	none	Motherwell F.C.	none
1984	none	Rangers F.C.	none
1985	none	Newcastle United F.C.	Rangers F.C.
1986	none	Dundee United F.C.	Craigavon United F.C.
1987	none	Crewe Alexandra F.C.	Dundee United F.C.
1988	none	Liverpool F.C.	Home Farm F.C.
1989	none	Newcastle United F.C.	Dungannon Swifts F.C.
1990	none	Tottenham Hotspur F.C.	Crewe Alexandra F.C.
1991	none	Manchester United F.C.	Norwich City F.C.
1992	none	Rangers F.C.	Norwich City F.C.
1993	none	Cherry Orchard F.C.	Slovakia
1994	none	Heart of Midlothian F.C.	Middlesbrough F.C.
1995	Wales	Russia	Everton F.C.
1996	Turkey	Tottenham Hotspur F.C.	West Ham United F.C.
1997	Northern Ireland	Middlesbrough F.C.	West Ham United F.C.
1998	Turkey	Chile	Crewe Alexandra F.C.
1999	Brazil	Crewe Alexandra F.C.	Manchester City F.C.
2000	Chile	Turkey	Charlton Athletic F.C.
2001	Mexico	Paraguay	Norwich City F.C.
2002	Paraguay	Leeds United A.F.C.	Everton F.C.
2003	Paraguay	Manchester United F.C.	Racing Club de Avellaneda
2004	Turkey	Heart of Midlothian F.C.	Maccabi Haifa F.C.
2005	USA	FC Barcelona	Lyngby Boldklub
2006	Paraguay	Spartak Moscow	Swindon Town F.C.
2007	Israel	Fluminense	Club Deportivo Guadalajara

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

• Official Milk Cup website
• BBC Sport NI at the Milk Cup - BBC Northern Ireland Milk Cup site

See also

• List of football (soccer) competitions

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