The inaugural Memorial Cup is the headline draw of Saints' pre season plans. Southampton Football Club is delighted to announce that it has organised a fantastic triangular tournament that will be hosted at St. Mary's on Saturday 23rd July. The 'Memorial Cup' is an innovative competition, which will see Nigel Adkins' team take on a Premier League side, and some top opposition from La Liga in three first class fixtures each lasting 45 high tempo minutes. This will become an annual event as a tribute to Markus Liebherr, the club's former owner who sadly passed away last year, honouring the love and passion that he had for Saints. It will also be a first outing in a new kit for the hosts, who line up at St. Mary's for this special event just two weeks before the start of the 2011/12 Championship season. The format of the tournament itself is a unique one to England, and it promises entertaining football with a guaranteed winner at the end of every game! The teams will play three round-robin 45-minute matches. If any match ends in a draw, then it is decided by a penalty shoot-out with points awarded fairly to reward competitive play. As normal, three points will be awarded for a victory during regular play, with no points going to the loser. However, if the match is decided by penalties, then the winner is awarded 2 points and the loser 1. Rules: - 3 points for win, 0 points for loss - 2 points for penalty kick win, 1 point for penalty kick loss The teams for this year's Memorial Cup will be revealed next Wednesday 15th June exclusively on saintsfc.co.uk where further details on this pre season encounter to savour will be released. From: http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2372946,00.html ------------------------------ Looks good, not sure the opposition really will be "top" but we'll see eh?
Sounds great competition and great gesture towards the Liebherr Family I would expect mid-table teams .... i.e Villa , Stoke, Fulham, Bolton etc.. Just had a thought....MY GOD IMAGINE IF NEWCASTLE CAME DOWN!!
Certainly is a good gesture, but my god I hope it isn't Stoke! If we want to do a gesture we could do it by not boring the Liebherrs to the point where they're scared to come in the ground again lest they see another disaster like that.
Funny you say that I was trying to remember the name of the other cup Saints had for Pre-Season. As there was one last season when we played Ajax ...AND LOST
I don't see why this means the end for The Ted Bates Trophy. This tournament isn't going to take up the whole of our pre-season (just one day), so there is still more time to arrange a game for the TBT. It could even be the West Brom game(?)
Sounds really good, should be a good day whatever the teams. I would love to see like Spurs/Man City, Barca & Athletico Madrid but will more likely be Everton/Villa, Seville & Valencia. But in honesty whoever it is will be great day, as all in the name of our saviour Markus!!!!
Wow, real news. This sounds good...although I don't really imagine a Prem side would bring their full first team down as it is a bit of a strange tourney.
I like the sound of it, each team will get 2x45 mins, and against 2 different teams, To me that sounds like a really useful pre-season run out. And a trophy to boot! I wouldn't be surprised if we got some pretty decent opposition for that. And from the fans view point we get 135 mins football against top opposition. I am kinda sad that the TBT seems to have been sidelined, I dont mean to undermine the huge debt of gratitude we all owe Markus, but sadly he did only get to put a year into the club (and a great stack of cash I know) but Ted Bates gave the club a lifetime of work. I hope this doesnt get forgotten.
Maybe because I read the Echo version first but I read it that there are 4 teams, Saints therefore playing 3 fixtures............I know it says a triangular tournament so it makes sense there should only be 3 teams involved.......confused.com. But very excited!
I just read the OS, and to me it read as 3 teams. I think 4 teams will be too many to fit into a tornament, even at 45 mins
The official site says a Premier League side and a top La Liga side, which would mean 3 games in total, rather than 3 games for Saints: Saints v PL side Saints v La Liga side PL side v La Liga side That's how I read it anyway.
If the teams played 135 minutes they would be knackered, it would make no sense. Plus I reckon Saints will play first and last, so they have a better chance
