SuperCupNI

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SuperCupNI

SuperCupNI Logo
Founded	1995 (Elite) 1983 (Premier) 1985 (Junior)
Region	Northern Ireland
Number of teams	6 (Elite) 24 (Premier) 24 (Junior)
Television broadcasters	BBC Northern Ireland
Website	supercupni.com

SuperCupNI, formerly called the Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament and the Dale Farm Milk Cup, is an international youth football tournament held annually in Northern Ireland. The cup matches are mainly played in the North Coast area of Northern Ireland, with matches taking place in the towns of Portrush, Portstewart, Castlerock, Limavady, Coleraine, Ballymoney, Ballymena and Broughshane. Mitre are the Official Ball Sponsor of the SuperCup with a specially designed Pro Max ball being used.^{[citation needed]}

The Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament began in 1983 with sixteen teams participating at an Under 16 (Premier) level. Motherwell from Scotland were the first winners. It was founded by Jim Weir, Victor Leonard, George Logan and Bertie Peacock, one of the most famous football players from the region.^{[citation needed]}

The competition was extended in 1985 when an extra age group, the Under 14 (Junior) section was introduced and again the first champions were from Scotland, as Rangers won the Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament at that age level. The competition at both levels has grown in size and stature over the years, with teams increasingly travelling from all continents to compete. The Under 19 (Elite) section was introduced in 1995 with the Welsh finishing the tournament as winners. Traditionally, the finals are played at the Coleraine Showgrounds on the Friday evening.^{[citation needed]}

Internationally capped footballers have taken part in the Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament, such as Charlie Davies, Jonathan Spector, Paul Scholes, and Wayne Rooney have all competed at some level.^{[citation needed]} In the 2002 FIFA World Cup there were 30 Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament veterans playing.^{[citation needed]}

To celebrate the competition's silver jubilee, a friendly match took place between Northern Ireland and four-time junior section winners Everton at the Coleraine Showgrounds on 14 July 2007. Everton won the tie 2–0.^{[citation needed]}

One of the key parts to the Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament is the inclusion of six representative teams from each county of Northern Ireland – Antrim, Armagh, Londonderry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone. This system allows young players from across the province to compete against some of the best in the world at their age group.

In October 2013, the Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament organising committee and lead sponsors Dairy Council released a joint statement stating that the long-term sponsors Dairy Council would be withdrawing sponsorship.^[1]

In February 2014, the organisers announced that competition would be sponsored by Belfast-based company Dale Farm and that the competition would be known as the Dale Farm Milk Cup for sponsorship reasons.^[2] From 2016 it has been known as the Super Cup NI.^[3]

Year	Elite (U-19)			Premier (U-16)			Junior (U-14)
	Winner	Runner-up		Winner	Runner-up		Winner	Runner-up
1983	Founded in 1995			Motherwell	Coleraine		Founded in 1985
1984				Rangers	Motherwell
1985				Newcastle United	Coleraine		Rangers	Craigavon
1986				Dundee United	Newcastle United		Craigavon United	Crewe Alexandra
1987				Crewe Alexandra	Liverpool		Dundee United	Crewe Alexandra
1988				Liverpool	Motherwell		Home Farm	Dundee United
1989				Newcastle United	Manchester United		Dungannon Swifts	Dublin & District Schoolboys
1990				Tottenham Hotspur	Crewe Alexandra		Crewe Alexandra	Hibernian
1991				Manchester United	Heart of Midlothian		Norwich City	Dundee United
1992				Rangers	Nottingham Forest		Norwich City	Heart of Midlothian
1993				Cherry Orchard	Rangers		Slovakia	Heart of Midlothian
1994				Hearts	Russia		Middlesbrough	Manchester United
1995	Wales			Russia	Feyenoord		Everton	Norwich City
1996	Turkey			Tottenham Hotspur	Blackburn Rovers		West Ham United	Motherwell
1997	Northern Ireland			Middlesbrough	Manchester United		West Ham United	Middlesbrough
1998	Turkey			Chile	West Ham United		Crewe Alexandra	West Ham United
1999	Vitória			Crewe Alexandra	Manchester United		Manchester City	Everton
2000	Chile			Turkey	Manchester City		Charlton Athletic	Manchester City
2001	Mexico	Scotland		Paraguay	Manchester United		Norwich City	Heart of Midlothian
2002	Paraguay	Denmark		Leeds United	Panathinaikos		Everton	Botafogo
2003	Paraguay	Brazil		Manchester United	Preston North End		Racing Club	Heart of Midlothian
2004	Turkey	Brazil		Heart of Midlothian	Belvedere		Maccabi Haifa	Everton
2005	USA	Northern Ireland		Barcelona	Chelsea		Lyngby	CSKA Moscow
2006	Paraguay	USA		Spartak Moscow	Rapid Vienna		Swindon Town	Crumlin United
2007	Israel	Northern Ireland		Fluminense	Manchester United		Guadalajara	St. Kevin's Boys FC
2008	Northern Ireland	Chile		Manchester United	South Coast Bayern		Everton	Wolverhampton Wanderers
2009	Northern Ireland	Denmark		Manchester United	Sheffield United		Everton	Watford
2010	USA	Northern Ireland		Étoile Lusitana	Bolton Wanderers		Chelsea	Cruz Azul
2011	Denmark	Northern Ireland		Aspire	Manchester United		Everton	Cruz Azul
2012	Mexico	Denmark		Desportivo Brasil	Newcastle United		Brentford	Everton
2013	Mexico	Northern Ireland		Manchester United	County Tyrone		Everton	County Antrim
2014	Northern Ireland	Canada		Manchester United	Vendée		Corinthians	County Antrim
2015	not held			County Antrim	Club América		Right to Dream	Southampton
2016	Everton	Celtic		O'Higgins	Hibernian		Right to Dream	County Londonderry
2017	Manchester United	Northern Ireland		Right to Dream	Club América		County Antrim	GPS Bayern
2018	not held			B Italia	County Down		County Antrim	Manchester United
2019	not held			Valencia	Newcastle United		Rangers FC	Charlton Athletic

The competition wasn't played in 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Manchester United's under-16s played 3 challenge matches against Coleraine, Ballymena United and Linfield.

Year	Premier			Junior			Youth (U-14)			Minor (U-13)
	Winner	Runner-up		Winner	Runner-up		Winner	Runner-up		Winner	Runner-up
2022	Ipswich Town	County Antrim		Manchester United	Rangers FC		Charlton Athletic	Glenavon		Surf Select	Glentoran
2023	County Londonderry	Tigres UANL		West Ham United	County Antrim		not held			Glasgow Celtic	Dungannon United Youth

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Since 2005 the Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament has been broadcast on BBC Northern Ireland, taking over from UTV. This has led to much more media coverage as matches from Finals Night are broadcast on BBC Two Northern Ireland. Usually these are from the Premier and Elite section featuring highlights of the junior game which happens earlier in the afternoon. Some Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament matches are broadcast on BBC Two NI, made available to the rest of the UK via BBCi and the BBC Sport website and some other Milk Cup matches are broadcast online. The coverage is usually hosted by Stephen Watson, with commentary by BBC commentators such as Jackie Fullerton, Michael McNamee, Paul Gilmour, Joel Taggart, Grant Cameron and punditry by John O'Neill, Gerry Armstrong and Oran Kearney.

• List of football (soccer) competitions

• Official website