The Foyle Cup in Derry is a very prestigious
tournament which has been running since 1992; it started off as a one day eight
team tournament at u14 & u16 level and every year since it has grown. When
it first began it was a Northern Ireland based tournament run by the local
Derry & District Youth FA at the request of the Derry City Council but as
the years went on it started to attract interest from teams in mainland Britain
with entrants from England, Scotland and Wales taking part and the tournament
changed to a six day event from 2005 with 90 teams entered in various age
groups.
The tournament from 2005 ran with an u10
& u11 mini-soccer event and u12, u14, u16 & u18 age groups with u18
changing to u19 in 2011; whilst in 2012 the tournament was increased to include
u13, u15, u17 & ladies events with the League of Ireland, Irish League,
English Premiership & Football League along with Scotland’s SPL being
represented throughout the various age groups. The tournament has continually
attracted interest from Europe and further afield with regular visitors such as
Ottawa Fury and Everton America whilst South American teams such as Guadalajara
have previously competed in the event.
On Thursday 23rd May,
Republic of Ireland International & Derry native Darron Gibson launched the
event whilst also making the draw in the City Hotel for the tournament which
took place from Monday 22nd July – Saturday 27th July 2013.
Included in the draw throughout the various age groups were Derry City,
Shelbourne, Finn Harps along with USL sides Letterkenny Rovers and Fanad United
and Co. Wicklow side Arklow Town; the Irish League are represented with
prestigious names such as Coleraine, Linfield, Glentoran and Crusaders; all
these teams will be pitting their wits against household names such as Glasgow
Celtic, Kilmarnock, Hearts, Hibernian, St. Johnstone, Norwich City and
Sheffield United.
The stand out group in the draw came in
the u13 category where Shelbourne have been pitted against Coleraine and
Glentoran, whilst the organisers await a late entry to fill the last spot
available in the category; in fact if this was the draw in a Setanta Cup group
stages it would certainly have been one of the better groups drawn at the time.
Of the League of Ireland representatives Derry City are represented from
u12-u16 as Derry Colts and u17, u19 & the ladies category as Derry City,
behind Derry City is Shelbourne who are represented in three categories, u13,
u14 and ladies with u13’s having been grouped with SPL side Heart of
Midlothian. Finn Harps, quite surprisingly have chosen just the two categories
in the advanced u17 and u19 age groups; Harps will compete against Select
Academy London, Derry side Ballymoor FC and Belfast side Hillsborough Boys FC;
whilst in the u19 group they will be favourites to advance when they come up against
Ballymoor FC, Strabane Athletic and Sporting Youth Monaghan.
The Ulster Senior League is also
represented with two teams in the u19 age group in the shape of Letterkenny
Rovers and Fanad United; Rovers will come up against Derry City, Limavady
United and Mountjoy United whilst Fanad have the tough task of overcoming SPL
side Kilmarnock which is likely to include former Derry City defender Caomhin
Bonner, they will also compete against the Inishowen Youth League as well Irish
League side Institute.
You can view the full draw at www.foylecup.com
and see whether there is representative teams that have been strung together
near you to compete is this event; these teams include Cavan/Monaghan Youth
League, Donegal Schools, Inishowen Youth League and little old Arklow Town FC
from Co. Wicklow all these teams are regular visitors to the Foyle Cup.
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