FryattFox
Well-Known Member
The Premier League today launches the Premier League International Cup, a four-group tournament involving some of the top Premier League Under-21 and elite development teams from England and other European leagues.
The tournament begins this evening with a Group B match between West Ham United v Athletic Club Bilbao at the Boleyn Ground. Kick-off is at 7pm and tickets will be available at the stadium. Free entry will be given to season-ticket holders and for other fans keen to attend, tickets are priced at £3 for adults and £1 for children.
In addition to West Ham, the English clubs involved in the tournament are: Chelsea, Everton, Fulham, Leicester City, Manchester City, Norwich City, and Sunderland. All eight clubs have category one youth academies.
The international clubs taking part are: Athletic Club Bilbao, Benfica, Borussia Monchengladbach, Celtic, Schalke, Porto, PSV Eindhoven, and Villarreal.
The groups are as follows:
Group-stage matches will be played between 15 October 2014 and 31 January 2015 with a full fixture programme to be published shortly. All matches will be organised by the Premier League. Clubs will play each team in their group once and all matches, including those between international teams, will be played in England. Upon completion of the group stages the winners and runners-up from each group will progress to the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final, all to be played as single-leg ties in England.
"When we launched the Elite Player Performance Plan in 2012 we recognised that providing competitive opportunities for the 18-21 age group – against English and international opposition – was a key objective in order to prepare Academy players for Barclays Premier League football," Premier League Director of Youth, Ged Roddy, said. "Since then we are two seasons into a Barclays Under-21 Premier League that now sees each club play at least three matches at their main stadium, crowds in the thousands watching matches – including more than 10,000 at Norwich v Spurs – and several games broadcast live on Sky Sports and BT Sport.
"The Premier League International Cup will see some of the best young players in this country able to test themselves in competitive matches against some of most talented young players in Europe."
Tough group, although good to be back in European action...
