Pan-Pacific Championship

The Pan-Pacific Championship is an inter-confederation football championship between teams from Japan's J. League, United States' and Canada's Major League Soccer (MLS) and Australia's and New Zealand's A League. [http://www.ppchampionship.net Official Pan-Pacific Championship website] ]

The event will be underwritten by the MLS and promoted through its Soccer United Marketing arm.cite news
first = Michael
last = Cockerill
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title = A-League joins the world game as pioneers of the Pan-Pacific championship
url = http://www.smh.com.au/news/a-league/aleague-joins-the-world-game-as-pioneers-of-the-panpacificchampionship/2007/11/05/1194117959688.html
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publisher = The Sydney Morning Herald
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date = 2007-11-06
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History

Inaugural tournament

The inaugural edition of the competition took place from February 20 to February 23 in Honolulu, Hawaii. [http://la.galaxy.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20071129&content_id=131334&vkey=pr_mls&fext=.jsp International tourney to debut Feb. '08 in Hawaii] ] Four teams took part in the competition; Houston Dynamo qualified as MLS Cup champions and Gamba Osaka qualified as champions of the Japanese League Cup.

Australia's A-League was represented by the loser of the minor semi final instead of the champion team. This was due to a scheduling conflict with the A-League Preliminary Final on February 17, followed by the Grand Final on February 24, which were moved back so as not to interfere with Australia's 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign.

The fourth competitor was originally intended to be the SuperLiga champion, Pachuca, but the club reportedly declined to take part and their place in the competition was awarded to Los Angeles Galaxy. Galaxy were possibly chosen as the SuperLiga runner-up or were simply invited to act as hosts.

Future

It is expected that the tournament will be expanded to include a representative from the Primera División de México, the K-League, or both. Future editions are likely to involve a larger number of teams than the four who competed in the innaugaral competition in 2008.

Football Federation Australia has expressed an interest in hosting the tournament in the near future.

Trophy

The trophy was designed by Thomas Lyte of London. The design is a vase shape with six 'arms' that support a ball with a diameter of 4 inches. Overall, the trophy stands at 16 inches tall. [http://www.ppchampionship.net/news/index.php?code=1203759711 Pan-Pacific Championship Trophy unveiled] ]

Results

References