The Umbro International Cup 450 teams took part in this year’s Umbro International Cup, the largest football festival in Great Britain, which attracted teams from countries all over the globe including Australia, Taiwan, Kenya, Malta, Lithuania, South Africa, Lusaka, Norway, USA, Canada, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Chile, Bahrain, Albania, Wales, Estonia, Switzerland and England.

The 2007 Umbro International Cup was hosted in Manchester and ran over three weekends. The individual tournaments included Women’s Open Age, Under 11-19 Boys, Under 14-17 Girls, Under 8-10 Boys Mini Soccer, Under 12 Girls Mini Soccer and a Men’s Open Age grouping.

Aside form the mini soccer age groups all the competitions were 11 aside tournaments with teams playing between 2 or 3 shorter length games per day over the course of the weekend. All the competitions commenced with a round robin stage and depending on final positions each team progressed to either the Trophy or Plate competition ensuring all teams were still involved on the final day.

Club Website sponsored this years Under 14 boy’s category with 26 teams competing from 6 nations. This year’s finalists and winners for each trophy were: Trophy Final: Mile End East (London) 0 - 4 Pro Star 'A' (London) Plate Final: Winnington Avenue (Manchester) 1 - 2 Failsworth Rangers FC (Cheshire)

The management and organization of this event was first class. It is certainly one of the largest grass roots tournaments out there and one that we will definitely get involved with next year.

Do not worry if you missed out this year, the Umbro International Cup is an annual event and next years dates are as follows:

Womens Open Age:

Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th July 2008

Youth and Girls Competition:

Wednesday 30th July to Saturday 2nd August 2008

Mini Soccer:

Saturday 26th July 2008 (Under 8 to Under 11 boys)

Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th July 2008 (Under 10 and Under 12 girls)

Men’s Open Age:

Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th August 2008

More information about this years, and next years event, can be found at www.umbrocup.com