Milk Cup
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- 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 19s - national sides
- Premier - U17s - club sides and national sides
- Junior - U15s - 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-17 (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-15 (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 national football team 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.
