Emirates Cup

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Emirates Cup is an annual two-day pre-season football tournament held at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium in London, England^[1], similar in style to the Amsterdam Tournament held by AFC Ajax, and is hosted by Premier League side Arsenal.

Hamburger SV is the current holder of the Trophy.

If a team scores, then a point adds onto their overall tally, a win counts for 3 points and a draw is worth 1 point.

The inaugural tournament took place on July 28 and July 29, 2007 and featured the hosts, as well as reigning Serie A champions Inter Milan, French side Paris Saint-Germain and Spanish outfit Valencia (having replaced Hamburger SV, who had to pull out of the tournament because of Intertoto Cup commitments ^[2]). Each team played two matches, with three points awarded for a win, one point for a draw, and a point for every goal scored, much like the Amsterdam Tournament. Hence Arsenal did not play against Valencia, and Inter Milan did not play against Paris Saint-Germain. The tournament was well attended with over 110,000 filling the Emirates stadium across the two day tournament.

As of 2008, Emirates have since agreed to host the tournament for a further three years. The 2008 Emirates Cup participants were Real Madrid, Juventus and Hamburger SV.^[3]

The 2009 Emirates Cup will take place on August 1 and August 2 and is set to feature Atletico Madrid, Rangers, Paris Saint-Germain and hosts Arsenal.

[edit] Media coverage

The Emirates Cup is broadcasted by Sky Sports in the UK, Al Jazeera Sports in the Middle East and Gol TV in the United States. Sky Sports and Gol TV have signed a three year deal to broadcast the tournament. In 2008, Arsenal awarded sports production firm Kentaro the production and rights distribution of the tournament.

[edit] The trophy

The sterling silver cup was made by Thomas Fattorini, whose family has produced trophies for English football since 1827. It was awarded to Arsenal FC, the winners of the inaugural pre-season tournament at Emirates Stadium on July 29 2007.

"We wanted to create a design that both stood out from other international football trophies and something that a club would be proud to place in their cabinet," said Fattorini.

"Emirates Stadium has very iconic, asymmetrical flowing lines across the rooftop, which motivated identical lines in the original brand identity for the stadium. The base, lip and handles of the trophy mirror these, with the Emirates logo placed firmly on the face of the cup.

[edit] 2007 tournament

[edit] Day 1

28 July 2007 14:00 BST	Inter Milan	0 – 2	Valencia	Emirates Stadium, London Attendance: 55,106 Referee: Alan Kelly
		Match Report	Gavilan 13' Villa 39'

28 July 2007 16:15 BST	Arsenal	2 – 1	Paris Saint-Germain	Emirates Stadium, London Attendance: 55,106 Referee: Peter Walton
	Flamini 45' Bendtner 70'	Match Report	Luyindula 80'

[edit] Day 2

29 July 2007 14:00 BST	Paris Saint-Germain	3 – 0	Valencia	Emirates Stadium, London Attendance: 59,821 Referee: Andre Marriner
	Diane 15' N'Gog 30' Luyindula 85'	Match Report

29 July 2007 16:15 BST	Arsenal	2 – 1	Inter Milan	Emirates Stadium, London Attendance: 59,821 Referee: Mark Halsey
	Hleb 67' van Persie 85'	Match Report	Suazo 62'

[edit] Final Tournament Standings

Rank	Team	Points	W	D	GF	GA	GD
1	Arsenal	10	2	0	4	2	2
2	Paris Saint-Germain	7	1	0	4	2	2
3	Valencia	5	1	0	2	3	-1
4	Inter Milan	1	0	2	1	4	-3

[edit] Scorers

Rank	Name	Team	Goals
1	Luyindula	Paris Saint-Germain	2
2	Nicklas Bendtner	Arsenal	1
	Amara Diane	Paris Saint-Germain
	Mathieu Flamini	Arsenal
	Jaime Gavilán Martínez	Valencia
	Aliaksandr Hleb	Arsenal
	David N'Gog	Paris Saint-Germain
	David Suazo	Internazionale
	Robin van Persie	Arsenal
	David Villa	Valencia