Manchester United Premier Cup

Manchester United Premier Cup

Founded	1993
Region	Worldwide
Current champions	Pachuca

The Manchester United Premier Cup is a global youth football tournament. The tournament was established by Nike in 1993 as the Nike Premier Cup and featured 624 teams from 15 European countries. The following year, the tournament expanded into the Asian continent, increasing the number of teams to 1,067, before adding a further 300 teams from the Latin American region in 1995.

In 1996, the tournament was reorganised to include a World Finals stage following the regional tournaments. The regional tournaments served to whittle down the competing teams from over 2,500 to just 12 for the finals tournament in Cape Town, South Africa. This structure was followed from 1996 to 2001, when it was decided that the host team and the national champions from 13 countries would be given direct qualification to the finals tournament, with the remaining six places in the 20-team tournament given to the teams from the Europe, Middle East, Latin America, South East Asia and Africa regions.

In 2003, to coincide with Nike replacing Umbro as kit sponsors of Manchester United, the tournament was re-branded as the Manchester United Premier Cup.

The tournament has grown year on year and, in 2007–08, over 9,400 teams competed in Premier Cup tournaments around the world to gain one of 20 places available at the Premier Cup World Finals.

Premier Cup World Champions

Season	Winners	Host country	Venue city
1996–97	Platense	South Africa	Cape Town
1997–98	Athletic Bilbao	France	Paris
1998–99	Barcelona	Spain	Barcelona
1999–2000	Internacional	Netherlands	Amsterdam
2000–01	Vitória	Germany	Berlin
2001–02	São Paulo	Portugal	Lisbon
2002–03	Corinthians	United States	Portland, Oregon
2003–04	Manchester City	England	Manchester
2004–05	Fluminense	Hong Kong	Hong Kong
2005–06	Guadalajara	England	Manchester
2006–07	Barcelona	England	Manchester
2007–08	Fluminense	England	Manchester
2008–09	São Paulo	England	Manchester
2009–10	Barcelona	England	Manchester
2010–11	Pachuca	England	Manchester

External links

• Official site
• Official Press Room website