A young Brentford side will head to Northern Ireland next month to once again take on some of the best teams in the world. The Bees have entered the prestigious Dale Farm Milk Cup – a youth competition which takes place in Northern Ireland that features dozens of teams from all of the globe playing in four age groups – and will travel across the Irish Sea at the end of July.
This will be the sixth successive year Brentford have entered the competition and The Bees made history in 2012 by winning the Junior section. Last year The Bees finished fifth in the Junior section and also entered a team in the Premier competition which finished eighth after narrowly missing out on a spot in the last four.
For 2015, Brentford will be sending a team to compete in the Junior competition and players are eligible if they are born on or after 1 January 2000, so they are mainly from the Under-15 squad which was recently successful in the Sportfan tournament in Lithuania.
The draw for the competition will take place next Wednesday, 24 June. At that point Brentford will find out their first three opponents. Each team is then ranked based on the number of points they gather in those games and go in to a series of knock-out competitions to compete for the final placings.
Ose Aibangee, Brentford Academy Director, said: "We are delighted to be sending a team to the Milk Cup again. “It is an exciting time for the boys and gives them experience in an international competition. I have been to many tournaments around the world and the Milk Cup is well regarded as it is very well organised and run. It’s very important for Brentford to be in the tournament and helps the long term future and development of our players.
“There are also benefits for the staff and coaches. To have won it was a fantastic achievement and we have had good results in recent years as well. Obviously we would love to go there and make the later stages but it is a very strong competition with some of the best teams in the world involved. I am sure our team will give a good account of themselves and represent Brentford FC in the best way possible. Hopefully that can then translate in to good progress and a good final placing.”
The Milk Cup will run from Monday 27 July to Friday 31 July.