Football Nation Summer Cup will feature amateur clubs

A new summer football tournament aimed at amateur teams in the Edinburgh area has been launched to provide competitive matches ahead of the return to league football in August.

The idea was the brainchild of Saughton Sounders manager, Sean Burt, and the event is sponsored by Football Nation, the popular kit supplier.

Sean told The Edinburgh Reporter: “We’ve been doing non-contact training due to the Covid restrictions and it looked as though we would be playing a series of friendly games so I decided to organise a tournament to guarantee that our players would be able to compete for a trophy this summer.

“I expected about eight teams would take part but the response was overwhelming and I had to make 48 teams the cut off but there could have been even more such was the interest.

“The whole purpose was to get teams back to playing games, but of course there are different standards so there will be three trophies to play for. There will be eight groups of six teams with the top two from each group playing for the Championship Cup, the middle two will play for the League Cup and the bottom two will play for the Conference Cup. After that it’s decided on a knockout basis so everyone will play at least six fixtures.

“The tournament is being sponsored by the Football Nation who will provide the trophies, medals and vouchers for the winners and runners-up. The three finals will take place back to back at Albyn Park in Broxburn on 11 July and there will be free admission to fans, Covid restrictions permitting.”