The highly awaited Emirates Cup 2011 will take place at the Emirates Stadium in London over the weekend of Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 July.
Joining the current English champions Arsenal in this exciting summer tournament will be Argentinian giants Club Atletico Boca Juniors, French heavyweights Paris Saint-Germain and Major League Soccer side New York Red Bulls.
The four participating teams boast many high profile international players who will feature during the tournament This will offer many football enthusiasts the first opportunity to see their favourite first team squad play ahead of the coming 2011/12 season.
Similar to previous past tournaments, two matches will be played on each day, with the kick-off times played both in the afternoon back to back. The teams will be awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw and will also earn one point for each goal they score in the competition. The winners will be then presented with the Emirates Cup trophy after the second match on Sunday.
The tournament kicks-off at 2pm on Saturday 3 July, with the upcoming New York Red Bulls taking on Paris Saint-Germain, followed at 4.15pm with the Emirates Cup holders Arsenal playing Argentine powerhouse Club Atletico Boca Juniors.
Sunday's fixtures start with Club Atletico Boca Juniors playing Paris Saint-Germain, while Arsenal and New York Red Bulls bring the competition to an exciting climax, kicking-off their late afternoon match on Sunday.
Previous tournaments
The first edition of this tournament took place four years ago and featured Arsenal, as well as the then reigning Italian Serie A champions Inter, French side Paris Saint-Germain and Spanish outfit Valencia. The Emirates Cup 2007 tournament was well attended with over 110,000 filling the Emirates Stadium heralding a great success in the years to come.
The 2008 Emirates Cup participants were Real Madrid, Juventus, and Hamburg, who would go on to win the Cup. In 2009, the third Emirates Cup edition featured Atlético Madrid, Scotland’s Rangers, Paris Saint-Germain and the Gunners who lifted this Cup for the second time. Last year’s edition featured Milan, Celtic, and Lyon joining the Premier League hosts. Arsenal have made their sponsors Emirates proud by winning three out of the four tournaments with only Hamburg, in 2008, managing to deprive the Gunners from the coveted Cup.
Thierry Henry
The participation of the New York Red Bulls in this year’s edition means Thierry Henry might play against his former club. The 33-year-old joined the Red Bulls in 2010 after leaving Arsenal for Barcelona in 2007.
Henry spent eight years with Arsenal from 1999-2007, scoring a club-record 226 goals in 370 games and captaining the Gunners in his final two seasons.
The French national’s only appearance against Arsenal since leaving the club came as a second-half substitute in Barcelona's 2-2 draw at Emirates Stadium in the 2009-10 Champions League quarter-finals. Henry has returned to Emirates Stadium on other occasions as a spectator and trained with Arsene Wenger's squad in January during the Major League Soccer off-season.
Henry played for Monaco and Juventus before making a €7million move to Arsenal, where he was part of the team who won two Premier League titles, three FA Cups and reached the Champions League final in 2006.
After being transferred to Barcelona he went on to win two Spanish titles and the 2009 Champions League and was part of the victorious France side at the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship.
Emirates Cup and Stadium
The sterling silver Emirates Cup was made by Thomas Fattorini, whose family has produced trophies for English football since 1827. The cup was purposely designed in such a way that it would be significantly different from other international football trophies and something that a club would be proud to place on their trophy rack.
In fact, the design resonates the Emirates Stadium in its iconic and asymmetrical flowing lines across the rooftop, which motivated identical lines in the original brand identity for the stadium. The base, lip and handles of the trophy mirror these, with the Emirates logo placed firmly on the face of the cup.