PREMIER LEAGUE BIG spenders Manchester City, European champions Inter Milan and SPL table-toppers Celtic are coming to Dublin this summer as part of the newly-launched Dublin Super Cup, it was announced this afternoon.
The cream of European talent will be joined by a fourth side made up of Airtricity League stars as part of the two-day tournament which will take place at the Aviva Stadium over the bank-holiday weekend of the 30th and 31st July.
The Irish representatives will kick off the mini-league tournament on the afternoon of Saturday 30th when they take on Leonardo’s Inter Milan, with Celtic and Manchester City providing the entertainment in the day’s second game.
The following day will see the Airtricity XI take on Celtic before Man City and Inter Milan bring the tournament to a close.
At a press conference this afternoon to officially launch the tournament, Celtic manager Neil Lennon spoke very highly of the former League of Ireland stars who are currently under his watchful eye, strongly defending former Shamrock Rovers and Derry City hero Paddy McCourt against charges of inconsistency.
Paddy’s attitude has been first class and he’s worked very hard on his fitness. He’s played a very important role for us already this season and he’s come up trumps in a lot of games. We’ve been delighted with him.
I think it’s unfair to say he goes missing. I don’t think you can expect him to beat five players every time he gets the ball. Having said that, when he came on on Tuesday night, the first thing he did was hit a 40-yard pass to Kris Commons. He’s a wonderful footballer with great vision.
The Hoops’ boss also spoke highly of the standard of the Airtricity League in general, stating that he expected the league’s representative side to provide a stern pre-season test for his squad when they travel to Dublin this summer.
“There is a lot of talent in the league that sometimes gets overlooked early on in their careers,” Lennon continued, citing the example of Keith Fahey who has worked his way into the set up at Birmingham City after a long domestic career with St. Patrick’s Athletic and Drogheda United.
“We have a lot of the teams covered by our scouting network.”
Dublin Super Cup organisers have promised that all three European sides will be bringing full-strength squads to the tournament as part of their pre-season preparations, which is bound to appeal to Irish-based fans of Celtic and Man City in particular.
Tickets for each of the tournament’s days start at €30 for adults and €10 for children under 16 and are on sale now through the tournament’s website, www.dublinsupercup.com
Is a line-up of Tevez, Silva, Eto’o and Milito enough to woo you to the Aviva this summer? Let us know in the comments below.
Check back in tomorrow for a preview of this weekend’s Old Firm Scottish Cup clash | Got a dodgy Greek decoder for watching the footy on? See what the European Court had to say about your rights this morning
