Prague, 19th March, 2014: The organizers of the international football tournament for top youth teams (under 19) from Central & Eastern Europe known as the “CEE Cup” have announced today the date of the fourth annual event. The week-long tournament will start on Wednesday, 23rd July and will culminate with a Grand Final on the evening of Wednesday, 30th July 2014.
In order to attract an even wider audience than usual, the organizers plan a few integral changes for this year, whilst still keeping in mind its main focus, which is that of young people, families, and, of course, football lovers of all age categories. It has also worked hard through the winter to ensure a star line-up of youth teams, and already two of the top Czech clubs, AC Sparta Praha and SK Slavia Praha have confirmed their participation, along with a high quality list of foreign clubs. These include last year’s champions, Győri ETO FC, as well as Vasas Budapest (both from Hungary), AS Trencin from Slovakia, FK Sarajevo from Bosnia, Red Stars Belgrade from Serbia, Rapid Wien from Austria and, for the first time ever, a top club from Germany, FSV Frankfurt.
Roberto De Blasio, the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the CEE Cup, commented:
„Every year we work hard to improve the level of the clubs taking part in the CEE Cup, and we are really excited about this fourth edition as we have already had several really exceptional clubs accepting our invitation. Rapid Wien, for example, is the club where Antonin Panenka, the CEE Cup Ambassador, spent some of his career, and Red Stars Belgrade and AS Trencin are both new for this year and very successful. Just now we are working hard to finalise the last few teams as we will continue with a maximum of 12 this year, and then we will be concentrating on our plans for the Grand Final, which we hope will be a real spectacle.”
The CEE Cup 2014 will follow the same format as in previous years, with 4 groups taking part in the play-offs, which are then followed by two semi-finals and then the Grand Final, with the semis and final this year being televised live on Eurosport. Last year’s final was televised live in more than 80 different countries, and watched by more than 2.2 million viewers.
As usual this year, there will be several supporting activities, including a series of networking events for football agents and scouts which follow on from last year’s very successful training sessions for young referees. Additional activities will be announced in the near future, but it is confirmed that the whole event will culminate in a Grand Final which will be held on 30th July in the Viktoria Zizkov Stadium.
Talking about the Grand Final, De Blasio said:
“Last year’s final was a true spectacle, and as good as any first league match, and we hope that with the range of clubs that we are expecting this year we will see some really fantastic football throughout the event.
For the Grand Final we plan to include entertainment for the whole family – kids in the afternoon, parents and young people in the evening and sports fans throughout the whole event, plus we hope to involve a number of big names from both sport and entertainment. For now we are keeping to ourselves who the main performers will be, but the football alone should be enough to tempt everyone out to cheer on the teams!”
For more information about the CEE Cup 2014 and previous years, please visit http://www.ceecup.org.
For more information please contact:
Organising Committee
Roberto De Blasio
Čermákova 7, 120 00 Praha 2
tel: +420 277 003 846 ,
email: [email protected]
Media Agency
JWA Prague s.r.o.
Vera Rohanova
Slezská 63, 130 00 Praha 3
tel: 420 242 454 740
email: [email protected]
Notes for Editors:
The CEE Cup is an annual international tournament for top Central & Eastern European (CEE) youth football club teams. The tournament focuses on „Respect“, „Fair Play“, and „Competitiveness“. The CEE Cup is the perfect opportunity for tournament visitors, managers and other interested spectators to see the football stars of the future.
www.ceecup.org
