The International Challenge Trophy, originally known as the European Challenge Trophy, is an international
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
competition. It is open to national teams featuring semi-professional U-23 footballers who have not yet won senior international caps. While the competition rules allow squads to select foreign-based players, some teams, including the
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...
,
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
and
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, have opted to restrict selection to footballers playing in their home national leagues. The European Challenge Trophy was contested in
2005–06 and featured just four teams -
England C
The England national football C team (previously known as the England National Game XI and the England Semi-Pro national team) is the football team that represents England at non-league level.
Formed in 1979 as the England Non-League team, it f ...
, Netherlands Amateurs U-23,
Belgium U-21 and
Italy Lega Pro U-21. England C won the inaugural competition. The competition was then relaunched as the International Challenge Trophy for the
2007–09 edition. This time the number of participants doubled.
2007–09 results at www.rsssf.com
/ref> The 2009–11 edition was contested by eleven teams.
Tournaments
References
{{International Challenge Trophy
International association football competitions in Europe