Milk Cup
The Milk Cup is an international youth football tournament held annually in Northern Ireland . It was founded in 1983 as a U-16 competition. A U-14 competition was added in 1985 and an U-19 competition has also been held since 1995. While club teams play for the Milk Cup in the U-14 and U-16 competitions, youth national teams take part in the U-19 competition. The Milk Cup games take place mainly on the north coast of Northern Ireland in the towns of Portrush , Portstewart , Castlerock , Limavady , Coleraine , Ballymoney , Ballymena and Broughshane .
history
The Milk Cup was held for the first time in 1983 with sixteen teams participating in the U-16s. Motherwell FC from Scotland was the first tournament winner. The tournament was founded by Jim Weir, Victor Leonard, George Logan and Bertie Peacock , one of the most famous football players in the region.
In 1985 the U-14 division was introduced and the first winner, Glasgow Rangers , was also from Scotland. The competition grew over the years in both age groups, with teams from all continents increasingly measuring each other at the tournament. The U-19 division was introduced in 1995, with the Welsh U-19 national team becoming the first tournament winner in this age group. Traditionally, the finals are played on Friday evening in the Coleraine Showgrounds stadium.
Many current internationally active soccer players like Charlie Davies , Jonathan Spector , Paul Scholes and Wayne Rooney In the 2002 FIFA World Cup played 30 football players who took part in the Milk Cup.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the tournament, a friendly game between the Northern Irish national football team and four-time U-14 tournament winner Everton FC was played at Coleraine Showgrounds on July 14, 2007 , which Everton won 2-0.
A key feature of the Milk Cup is the integration of six representative teams from each county in Northern Ireland, Antrim , Armagh , Down , Fermanagh , Londonderry and Tyrone . This system allows young games from all over Northern Ireland to compete against the best teams in the world in their age group.
winner
reporting
Since 2005 is Milk Cup from BBC Northern Ireland broadcast, the reporting of Ulster Television is adopted. The U-19 and U-16 age group finals on Friday evening will be broadcast live on BBC 2 Northern Ireland . The highlights of the U-14 final in the afternoon are also shown in a summary.
Some other Milk Cup games will also be broadcast on BBC 2 Northern Ireland . The rest of the UK can find out about the tournament through the BBCi and the BBC SPORT website. Some Milk Cup games are also streamed online on the BBC Northern Ireland website. Football broadcasts are usually hosted by Stephen Watson. In recent years, BBC football commentators such as Jackie Fullerton , Michael McNamee, Paul Gilmour, Joel Taggart and experts such as John O'Neill , Gerry Armstrong and Oran Kearney have been used.