SuperCupNI

SuperCupNI, formerly called the Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament and the Dale Farm Milk Cup, is an international youth football tournament held annually in Northern Ireland. The cup matches are mainly played in the North Coast area of Northern Ireland, with matches taking place in the towns of Portrush, Portstewart, Castlerock, Limavady, Coleraine, Ballymoney, Ballymena and Broughshane. Mitre are the Official Ball Sponsor of the SuperCup with a specially designed Pro Max ball being used.

For other uses, see Milk cup (disambiguation).

SuperCupNI
SuperCupNI Logo
Founded1995 — Elite
1983 — Premier
1985 — Junior
RegionNorthern Ireland
Number of teams6 — Elite
24 — Premier
24 — Junior
Television broadcastersBBC Northern Ireland
Websitehttp://supercupni.com/

History
Logo used when the tournament was known as the Dale Farm Milk Cup

The Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament began in 1983 with sixteen teams participating at an Under 16 (Premier) level. Motherwell from Scotland were the first winners. It was founded by Jim Weir, Victor Leonard, George Logan and Bertie Peacock, one of the most famous football players from the region.

The competition was extended in 1985 when an extra age group, the Under 14 (Junior) section was introduced and again the first champions were from Scotland, as Rangers won the Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament at that age level. The competition at both levels has grown in size and stature over the years, with teams increasingly travelling from all continents to compete. The Under 19 (Elite) section was introduced in 1995 with the Welsh finishing the tournament as winners. Traditionally, the finals are played at the Coleraine Showgrounds on the Friday evening.

Milk Cup Sub-16 2007.

Internationally capped footballers have taken part in the Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament, such as Charlie Davies, Jonathan Spector, Paul Scholes, and Wayne Rooney have all competed at some level. In the 2002 FIFA World Cup there were 30 Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament veterans playing.

To celebrate the competition's silver jubilee, a friendly match took place between Northern Ireland and four-time junior section winners Everton at the Coleraine Showgrounds on 14 July 2007. Everton won the tie 2–0.

One of the key parts to the Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament is the inclusion of six representative teams from each county of Northern Ireland - Antrim, Armagh, Londonderry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone. This system allows young players from across the province to compete against some of the best in the world at their age group.

In October 2013, the Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament organising committee and lead sponsors Dairy Council released a joint statement stating that the long-term sponsors Dairy Council would be withdrawing sponsorship.[1]

In February 2014, the organisers announced that competition would be sponsored by Belfast-based company Dale Farm and that the competition would be known as the Dale Farm Milk Cup for sponsorship reasons.[2] From 2016 it has been known as the Super Cup NI.[3]

Winners
Year Elite (U-19) Premier (U-16) Junior (U-14)
Winner Runner-up Winner Runner-up Winner Runner-up
1983 Founded in 1995 Motherwell Coleraine Founded in 1985
1984 Rangers Motherwell
1985 Newcastle United Coleraine Rangers Craigavon
1986 Dundee United Newcastle United Craigavon United Crewe Alexandra
1987 Crewe Alexandra Liverpool Dundee United Crewe Alexandra
1988 Liverpool Motherwell Home Farm Dundee United
1989 Newcastle United Manchester United Dungannon Swifts Dublin & District Schoolboys
1990 Tottenham Hotspur Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Hibernian
1991 Manchester United Heart of Midlothian Norwich City Dundee United
1992 Rangers Nottingham Forest Norwich City Heart of Midlothian
1993 Cherry Orchard Rangers  Slovakia Heart of Midlothian
1994 Hearts  Russia Middlesbrough Manchester United
1995  Wales  Russia Feyenoord Everton Norwich City
1996  Turkey Tottenham Hotspur Blackburn Rovers West Ham United Motherwell
1997  Northern Ireland Middlesbrough Manchester United West Ham United Middlesbrough
1998  Turkey  Chile West Ham United Crewe Alexandra West Ham United
1999 Vitória Crewe Alexandra Manchester United Manchester City Everton
2000  Chile  Turkey Manchester City Charlton Athletic Manchester City
2001  Mexico  Scotland  Paraguay Manchester United Norwich City Heart of Midlothian
2002  Paraguay  Denmark Leeds United Panathinaikos Everton Botafogo
2003  Paraguay  Brazil Manchester United Preston North End Racing Club Heart of Midlothian
2004  Turkey  Brazil Heart of Midlothian Belvedere Maccabi Haifa Everton
2005 USA  Northern Ireland Barcelona Chelsea Lyngby CSKA Moscow
2006  Paraguay USA Spartak Moscow Rapid Vienna Swindon Town Crumlin United
2007  Israel  Northern Ireland Fluminense Manchester United Guadalajara St. Kevin's Boys FC
2008  Northern Ireland  Chile Manchester United South Coast Bayern Everton Wolverhampton Wanderers
2009  Northern Ireland  Denmark Manchester United Sheffield United Everton Watford
2010 USA  Northern Ireland Étoile Lusitana Bolton Wanderers Chelsea Cruz Azul
2011  Denmark  Northern Ireland Aspire Manchester United Everton Cruz Azul
2012  Mexico  Denmark Desportivo Brasil Newcastle United Brentford Everton
2013  Mexico  Northern Ireland Manchester United County Tyrone Everton County Antrim
2014  Northern Ireland  Canada Manchester United Vendée Corinthians County Antrim
2015 not held County Antrim Club América Right to Dream Southampton
2016 Everton Celtic O'Higgins Hibernian Right to Dream County Londonderry
2017 Manchester United  Northern Ireland Right to Dream Club América County Antrim GPS Bayern
2018 not held B Italia County Down County Antrim Manchester United

Notable players

Media coverage

Since 2005 the Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament has been broadcast on BBC Northern Ireland, taking over from UTV. This has led to much more media coverage as matches from Finals Night are broadcast on BBC Two Northern Ireland. Usually these are from the Premier and Elite section featuring highlights of the junior game which happens earlier in the afternoon. Some Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament matches are broadcast on BBC Two NI, made available to the rest of the UK via BBCi and the BBC Sport website and some other Milk Cup matches are broadcast online. The coverage is usually hosted by Stephen Watson, with commentary by BBC commentators such as Jackie Fullerton, Michael McNamee, Paul Gilmour, Joel Taggart, Grant Cameron and punditry by John O'Neill, Gerry Armstrong and Oran Kearney.

See also

References
  1. "Milk Cup Chairman: Dairy Council backing was 'remarkable'". NI Milk Cup. 21 October 2013. Archived from the original on 22 October 2013. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
  2. "Dale Farm new sponsor for Milk Cup". Coleraine Times. Johnston Publishing. 28 February 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  3. "Milk Cup football tournament in name change to Super Cup NI". BBC Sport. 20 October 2015.
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