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Premier League International Cup

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Premier League International Cup
Organising bodyPremier League
Founded2014; 10 years ago (2014)
RegionEurope
Number of teams24 (group stage)
8 (knockout)
Related competitionsPremier League 2
Current championsEngland Crystal Palace
(1st title)
Most successful club(s)Portugal Porto
(2 titles)
WebsiteOfficial website
2024–25 Premier League International Cup

The Premier League International Cup is an English football competition for under-23 teams 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]

Overview

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The competition featured under-23 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 stage, 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 are hosted in England with games involving two foreign teams being held at neutral venues.[2] English clubs 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.[citation needed]

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

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Season Winners Score Runners-up Losing semi-finalists Final stage host
2014–15 England Manchester City 1–0 Portugal Porto England Fulham and England Leicester City Academy Stadium, Manchester
2015–16 Spain Villarreal 4–2 (a.e.t.) Netherlands PSV England Chelsea and Portugal Porto The Den, London
2016–17 Portugal Porto 5–0 England Sunderland England Norwich City and Wales Swansea City Stadium of Light, Sunderland
2017–18 Portugal Porto 1–0 England Arsenal England Newcastle United and Spain Villarreal Emirates Stadium, London
2018–19 Germany Bayern Munich 2–0 Croatia Dinamo Zagreb England Reading and England Southampton The Den, London
2019–20 Aborted after the group stage due to the COVID-19 pandemic in England
2020–21 No competition due to the COVID-19 pandemic in England
2021–22
2022–23 Netherlands PSV 3–1 (a.e.t.) England Crystal Palace England Fulham and Spain Valencia Selhurst Park, London
2023–24 England Crystal Palace 1–0 Netherlands PSV England Everton and England West Ham United Selhurst Park, London

Performances

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By club

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Competition trophy in 2019
Performance in Finals by club
Team Winners Runners-up Years won Years runner-up
Portugal Porto 2 1 2016–17, 2017–18 2014–15
Netherlands PSV 1 2 2022–23 2015–16, 2023–24
England Crystal Palace 1 1 2023–24 2022–23
England Manchester City 1 0 2014–15
Spain Villarreal 1 0 2015–16
Germany Bayern Munich 1 0 2018–19
England Sunderland 0 1 2016–17
England Arsenal 0 1 2017–18
Croatia Dinamo Zagreb 0 1 2018–19

By nation

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Performance in Finals by nation
Country Winners Runners-up Years won Years runner-up
 England 2 3 2014–15, 2023–24 2016–17, 2017–18, 2022–23
 Portugal 2 1 2016–17, 2017–18 2014–15
 Netherlands 1 2 2022–23 2015–16, 2023–24
 Spain 1 0 2015–16
 Germany 1 0 2018–19
 Croatia 0 1 2018–19

Top scorers by season

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Season Goals Player Club
2014–15 6 Saint Kitts and Nevis Harry Panayiotou England Leicester City
Portugal Leandro Silva Portugal Porto
2015–16 6 Jamaica Kasey Palmer England Chelsea
2016–17 4 England Carlton Morris England Norwich City
2017–18 5 Spain Adrián Dalmau Spain Villarreal
England James Wilson England Manchester United
2018–19 5 England Danny Loader England Reading
2019–20 7 Wales Liam Cullen Wales Swansea City
2022–23 5 Netherlands Jason van Duiven Netherlands PSV
2023–24 5 Morocco Mohamed Nassoh Netherlands PSV
France Romain Perret France Lyon

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Premier League International Cup explained". www.premierleague.com. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  2. ^ a b Morgan, Tom (June 5, 2019). "Opposition to Champions League reforms given further backing by Premier League". The Telegraph – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  3. ^ "'Playing best Premier League teams is amazing'". Premier League. 13 September 2016. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  4. ^ "U21S JOIN PREMIER LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL CUP". www.canaries.co.uk.