International Challenge Trophy
The International Challenge Trophy, originally known as the European Challenge Trophy, is an international association football competition. It is open to national teams featuring semi-professional U-23 footballers who have not yet won senior international caps.[1] While the competition rules allow squads to select foreign-based players, some teams, including the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Italy, have opted to restrict selection to footballers playing in their home national leagues.[2][3] The European Challenge Trophy was contested in
2005–06 and featured just four teams - England C, Netherlands Amateurs U-23, Belgium U-21 and Italy Lega Pro U-21. England C won the inaugural competition. [4] The competition was then relaunched as the International Challenge Trophy for the 2007–09 edition. This time the number of participants doubled. [5] The 2009–11 edition was contested by eleven teams.
Tournaments
Year | Winners | Final match result | Runners-up | Number of teams | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2005–06 Details | England C | No final | Belgium U-21 | 4 | ||
2007–09 Details | Belgium U-21 | 1–0 | England C | 8 | ||
2009–11 Details | Portugal U-23 | 1–0 | England C | 11 | ||
2011–13 Details | Turkey A2 | 1–0 | Norway U23 | 8 | ||
2013–15 Details [6][7] | Slovakia U-23 | 2–2 3–2 pen. | Turkey U-23 | 8 | ||
2015–17 Details [8] | Slovakia U-23 | 4–0 | England C | 4 |
References
^ kassiesa.nl
^ www.fai.ie
^ bbc.co.uk
^ 2005–06 results at www.rsssf.com
^ 2007–09 results at www.rsssf.com
^ "IC Trophy official page". Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved 2015-09-05. CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
^ "Final match report (in Slovak)". Archived from the original on May 22, 2016. Retrieved 2016-05-22. CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
^ the whole match is on Youtube