Premier League International Cup

The Premier League International Cup is an English football competition for U23 players from across Europe.[1] It was designed to provide players in English Category One academies with the opportunity to match themselves against other elite European footballers from their age group in a competitive environment.[1] The competition was created by the Premier League as part of the organisation's Elite Player Performance Plan and is not sanctioned by UEFA.[2]

Premier League International Cup
Organising bodyPremier League
Founded2014 (2014)
RegionEurope
Number of teams24 (group stage)
8 (knockout)
Related competitionsPremier League 2
Current champions Bayern Munich
(1st title)
Most successful club(s) Porto
(2 titles)
WebsiteOfficial website
Current season

Overview

The competition features U23 sides from twelve English clubs and twelve other European clubs for the 2017–18 season.[3] Prior the 2016–17 season, eight English and eight other European clubs competed in the competition. English teams qualify via their standing in the Premier League 2 and entry by European clubs is by invitation from the Premier League. For the 2014–15 tournament the 16 teams were split into four groups of four. Upon completion of the group stages the winners and runners-up from each group progressed to the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final, all played as single-leg ties.[1] UEFA tried to block the creation of the tournament and refused to sanction its creation, to circumvent this all games will be hosted in England with games involving two foreign teams being held in neutral venues.[2] English clubs will play a minimum of two of their fixtures at the main stadium of their senior side.[4] To ensure the focus is on development, the Premier League made no prize money available for the competition.

As in the Professional U21 Development League, teams are allowed to field three overage outfield players and one overage goalkeeper per match.

The most successful team is Porto with two titles. Porto won the trophy in two consecutive seasons by beating Sunderland on 17 May 2017 and Arsenal on 8 May 2018.

Finals
Season Winners Score Runners-up Losing semi-finalists Final stage host
2014–15 Manchester City 1–0 Porto Leicester City and Fulham Academy Stadium, Manchester
2015–16 Villarreal 4–2 PSV Chelsea and Porto The Den, South Bermondsey
2016–17 Porto 5–0 Sunderland Swansea City and Norwich City Stadium of Light, Sunderland
2017–18 Porto 1–0 Arsenal Villarreal and Newcastle United Emirates Stadium, London
2018–19 Bayern Munich 2–0 Dinamo Zagreb Reading and Southampton The Den, South Bermondsey
2019–20 The tournament was ended early due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Performances

By club
Competition trophy in 2019
Performance in Finals by club
Team Winners Runners-up Years won Years runner-up
Porto 2 1 2016–17, 2017–18 2014–15
Manchester City 1 0 2014–15 —
Villarreal 1 0 2015–16 —
Bayern Munich 1 0 2018–19 —
PSV 0 1 — 2015–16
Sunderland 0 1 — 2016–17
Arsenal 0 1 — 2017–18
Dinamo Zagreb 0 1 — 2018–19

By nation
Performance in Finals by nation
Country Winners Runners-up Years won Years runner-up
 Portugal 2 1 2016–17, 2017–18 2014–15
 England 1 2 2014–15 2016–17, 2017–18
 Spain 1 0 2015–16 —
 Germany 1 0 2018–19 —
 Netherlands 0 1 — 2015–16
 Croatia 0 1 — 2018–19

Top scorers by season
Season Player Goals Club
2014–15 Harry Panayiotou 6 Leicester City
Leandro Silva Porto
2015–16 Kasey Palmer Chelsea
2016–17 Carlton Morris 4 Norwich City
2017–18 Adrián Dalmau 5 Villarreal
James Wilson Manchester United
2018–19 Danny Loader Reading
2019–20 Liam Cullen 7 Swansea City

See also

References
  1. "Premier League International Cup explained". www.premierleague.com. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  2. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/06/05/opposition-champions-league-reforms-given-backing-bypremier/
  3. "'Playing best Premier League teams is amazing'". Premier League. 13 September 2016. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  4. http://www.canaries.co.uk/news/article/norwich-city-under-21s-join-premier-league-international-cup-2017679.aspx
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