International Challenge Trophy

The International Challenge Trophy, originally known as the European Challenge Trophy, was 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 England C No final Belgium Belgium U-21 4
2007–09
Details
Belgium Belgium U-21 1–0 England England C 8
2009–11
Details
Portugal Portugal U-23 1–0 England England C 11
2011–13
Details
Turkey Turkey A2 1–0 Norway 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 England C 4

References

  1. ^ kassiesa.nl
  2. ^ www.fai.ie
  3. ^ bbc.co.uk
  4. ^ 2005–06 results at rsssf.org
  5. ^ 2007–09 results at rsssf.org
  6. ^ "IC Trophy official page". Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved 2015-09-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  7. ^ "Final match report (in Slovak)". Archived from the original on May 22, 2016. Retrieved 2016-05-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  8. ^ the whole match is on Youtube