They will host two tournaments, one for under 16s and one for under 17s over the two weekends where 400 players and staff will fly to the Algarve to participate in the Algarve Cup Trophy.

Mick de Vlieger has been organising nationwide events for the last five years including organising youth football tournaments in the Netherlands and is excited to bring his expertise to the Algarve, where a part of his family resides, with the goal of booking local hotels and businesses in the low season.

“My father is the owner of Carvoeiro Clube which is one of the biggest tourist companies in the Algarve and I thought how could I help the tourism sector which has suffered greatly due to covid and fill these hotels up, especially the Lagoa area which is my second home and relies on tourism to survive.”

Great opportunity

“These tournaments will be great for the Portimão youth team as well as Albufeira who is not a professional team but will get to play bigger teams like Braga and Benfica, which is a great opportunity.

“Unfortunately, Dynamo Kyiv and Zenit football club Saint Petersburg could not make it because of the war and we had really hoped to have those names because FC Zenit Saint Petersburg is one of the best youth academies in Europe.”

On the first weekend, there will be 13 teams participating in the Under 16s tournament which will take place on 11, 12 and 13 March, with tournaments starting at 10am at both Estádio Municipal de Albufeira and Dr. Francisco Vieira Stadium in SIlves (Silves Futebol Clube). The teams participating are Real Betis Sevilla, SL Benfica, Sporting CP, Dundee United, Brondby IF, Imortal DC, PFA, KRC Genk, Vasalunds IF, Gornik Zabrze, Deportivo La Coruna, Football Ambitions and ISR.

Big matches

Some of the big matches include Malaga vs SL Benfica on Friday, 11 March at 2pm at Estádio Municipal de Albufeira and in Silves there will be Sporting CP vs Desportivo La Coruna at 2pm. On Sunday the Semi-Finals start at 11:40am and the Final will be at 3pm.

On the second weekend, 16 teams will participate in the Under 17s tournament which will take place on the 18th, 19th and 20th of March, starting at 10am, with the last match at 5:40pm with tournaments being played at both Dr. Francisco Vieira Stadium in Silves and Campo Major David Neto in Portimão.

The teams participating are: SC Braga, Sporting CP, FC Kopenhagen, Malaga CF, Grasshopper Club Zürich, Portimonense SC, AGF Aarhus, International Sports Revolution, Club Brugge, SL Benfica, FC Midtjylland, FC Porto, Aberdeen, Real Betis Sevilla, SoenderjyskE and Progress Cantera.

Some of the second weekends big matches include SC Braga vs Sporting CP on 19 March at 12:20pm in Portimão and at 3:40pm there will be FC Porto vs Soenderjyske in Silves, with the finals taking place in Silves, starting with the semi-finals at 1:20pm. There will be matches played throughout both weekends so spectators are welcome to watch matches and to keep updated with the event please see @AlgarveCup on Instagram.

Author

Following undertaking her university degree in English with American Literature in the UK, Cristina da Costa Brookes moved back to Portugal to pursue a career in Journalism, where she has worked at The Portugal News for 3 years. Cristina’s passion lies with Arts & Culture as well as sharing all important community-related news.

Cristina da Costa Brookes