Reigning Spanish champions Atletico Madrid will make their tournament debut at this year’s Soccer Sevens, which will be held at Hong Kong Football Club from May 29-31.
Atletico, Spain’s third-best supported club after Real Madrid and Barcelona, will be the first Spanish club to compete in the annual seven-a-side tournament, which will mark its 16th edition in May – a year after Atletico clinched their 10th La Liga title.
Emilio Gutiérrez, Director of the club’s Academy and Expansion, said: “Atletico Madrid is proud to be the first Spanish side to compete at the Soccer Sevens, which has a strong reputation. We can see that many great teams have won the event and each year there are famous clubs competing, so we’ll just do our best and hope to entertain the fans with our style of football. We are sure that this tournament will be also a great platform to promote the Atletico Madrid brand all over the Asian market, which is a strategic area in the international expansion process of our club.”
Stoke City will also make their tournament debut at this years tournament, when ‘The Potters’ will be one of five English Premier League clubs participating.
West Ham United, boasting one of England’s most successful academies, will compete for the first time since 2012, while five-time champions Aston Villa and recent winners Newcastle United and Leicester City return from last year’s 16-team Main competition.
Villa (2011), Newcastle (2012) and Leicester (2013) have won three of the last four editions of the international seven-a-side-tournament, which each year includes youth teams from Premier League clubs.
Tony Bratsanos, Chairman of the Soccer Sevens Organising Committee, said: “The Soccer Sevens has always had a strong presence from the Premier League, so we’re delighted that Aston Villa, Newcastle United and Leicester City are continuing their participation and will be bidding to lift the Cup again. We’re excited that West Ham will be coming back after a brief break, as they were a very popular side when they played here, and we’re also proud that we were able to secure Stoke City for their tournament debut. Stoke are enjoying a fine season and will be a welcome addition to the Main competition.”
English clubs have won 10 of the 15 editions of the tournament since its inauguration in 1999. Aston Villa have won a record five times (2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010), while Blackburn Rovers (1999), Arsenal (2001), Newcastle (2012), Leicester (2013) and Manchester City (2014) are the other English clubs to have lifted the Cup.
Hong Kong clubs Kitchee (2011) and Instant Dict (2000), Japan’s Urawa Reds (2005, 2006) and Scottish giants Celtic (2009) are the tournament’s only non-English champions.
The remaining sides in this year’s 16-team Main competition and teams competing in the over-35 Masters tournament will be confirmed soon.
Future stars who have competed in the Main competition include Gabby Agbonlahor, Glen Johnson, Marc Albrighton, David Bentley, Anton Ferdinand, Sammy Ameobi, Shaun Maloney, Jack Grealish and Rolando Aarons.
The Masters tournament has featured former England internationals Peter Beardsley, John Barnes, Chris Waddle, Teddy Sheringham, Des Walker, Andy Cole and Matt Le Tissier, German legends Jurgen Klinsmann and Pierre Littbarski, Finnish icon Jari Litmanen, Dutch great Aron Winter and former France winger Didier Six.
Soccer Sevens
When: 29-31 May, 2015
Where: HK Football Club
Tickets: HK$160 per day or HK$300 for a two-day pass
Image: Atletico Madrid
