Tottenham Academy to Play in N I Milk Cup

Tottenham will again be sending a youth team to Northern Ireland this summer to compete for the Northern Ireland Milk Cup.  This will be the club's third successive year competing in the tournament after an absence of many years.  Last year Spurs' young Academy team finished fifth, and won the Globe Trophy by defeating South Coast Strikers on penalties, in their play-off for fifth and sixth.

Northern Ireland Milk Cup 2012

The Northern Ireland Milk Cup is a premier international youth tournament which is centred on the town of Coleraine but is played at grounds around the area.  To avoid a clash with the opening of the Olympic Games in London, the tournament commences on Saturday, 21st July rather than its traditional Monday start.  The official parade around Coleraine will be on the Sunday evening.  The Finals night will be on Thursday, 26th July.  Matches will be played at venues in towns around the North Antrim coast - Coleraine, Portrush where the Irish Open Golf Championship will be played in June, Portstewart, Ballymoney, Limavady and Ballymena.

Harry Redknapp has confirmed that Spurs will again be sending a team to compete in the Premier Section for players born on or before 1st January, 1995.  The squad of eighteen players will face opposition from Premier League clubs, Bolton Wanderers and Newcastle United, and international teams like Benfica, South Coast Strikers from California whom they played twice last year, Otaga from New Zealand another opponent from last season's competition and Revo Express from Norway.  The six local County teams also participate each year.  Redknapp regards the Milk Cup as an important tournament for the development of young players.

Spurs have won the competition twice - in 1990 when Nicky Barmby was the star of the youth team and then in 1996 when Ledley King was a member of the team.  Spurs didn't enter a team for many years but returned two years ago where they won their section but lost in the quarter finals.  In the play-offs they finished seventh.  That team contained players like Daniel Day, Kevin Stewart, Ronnie Hawkins, Laste Dombaxe, James Yeboah and Alexander McQueen.

Last year's team included Billy Granger, Dominic Ball, Ruben Lameiras, Kenneth McEvoy, Oliver Modeste, Roman Michael-Percil, Grant Ward and Victor Zapata-Caicedo.  The competition is a great experience for young players with Spurs using players who are often much younger than their opponents.  Many of the players who have competed in the last two Milk Cup competitions have progressed to the Academy team for the League games, FA Youth Cup and the NextGen Series team which had such an impressive season.

The draw for this year's competition will be made on Friday, 25th May at 11am.

NI Milk Cup 2011 Spurs Results

Spurs Players from 2011 

NI Milk Cup 2010 Spurs Results

Further details are available at: Northern Ireland Milk Cup 2012