Premier League Asia Trophy

Premier League Asia Trophy

Founded	2003
Region	AFC (Asia)
Current champions	Arsenal (1st title)
Most successful club(s)	Chelsea (2 titles)

The Premier League Asia Trophy (known as the Barclays Asia Trophy for sponsorship reasons, previously the FA Premier League Asia Cup) is a friendly four-team pre-season football tournament held in Asia every two years. The competition is contested by three Premier League football clubs and the home team.

History

Due to the immense popularity of the Premier League in Asia, the league has held pre-season tournaments in Asia since 2003. Originally known as the FA Premier League Asia Cup, the tournament is the only Premier League-affiliated competition to have been held outside England.

The Asia Trophy is held once every two years in odd years, to avoid conflicts with the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Football Championship tournaments.

2003 Malaysia

In July 2003, the competition was held in Malaysia, and featured three Premier League clubs (Chelsea, Newcastle United and Birmingham City) and the Malaysian National Team. All matches were played in the 80,000 capacity Bukit Jalil Stadium. The final was won by Chelsea after a penalty shootout. Chelsea beat Newcastle United, having beaten the Malaysian National Team 4–1 with goals from Glen Johnson, Frank Lampard, Eiður Guðjohnsen and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.^[1]

2005 Thailand

In 2005, the Asia Trophy featured a similar format, but was held in Thailand and featured the Thailand national football team competing against Everton, Manchester City and Bolton Wanderers, with Bolton winning the competition.^[1]

2007 Hong Kong

The competition was held in Hong Kong in 2007, South China as the host team by winning the 2006–07 Hong Kong FA Cup while Liverpool, Portsmouth, Fulham took part. The first semi-final was won by Portsmouth 1–0 after a goal by Benjani in the 45th minute. Liverpool won 3–1 against South China in the other semi-final thanks to a Riise free-kick and an Alonso penalty. South China pulled a goal back with a 40-yard Li Haiqiang free-kick, but was made irrelevant when Daniel Agger scored to make it 3–1. Fulham beat South China 4–1 in the third place play-off. Portsmouth beat Liverpool 4–2 on penalties to win the Barclays Asia Trophy after a goalless draw in normal time, with Pompey goalkeeper David James saving penalties from Yossi Benayoun and Fernando Torres.^[1]

2009 China

Teams Competing: Hull City, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and Chinese Super League team Beijing Guoan. Tottenham Hotspur beat West Ham United 1–0 in the first semi final,^[2] with Hull City joining them in the final after a 5–4 penalty shootout over Beijing Guoan following a 1–1 draw in regular time.^[3]

Both the third / fourth playoff and the final were played on Friday 31 July. West Ham United won the third / fourth playoff 2–0 against Beijing Guoan.^[4] Tottenham went on to beat Hull 3–0 in the final. Goalscorers, Robbie Keane (2) and Aaron Lennon.^[5]

Champion 2011: Chelsea

2011 Hong Kong

The Barclays Asia Trophy returned to Hong Kong in 2011. Chelsea, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers and the 2010–11 Hong Kong First Division League champions, Kitchee, played in the Barclays Asia Trophy. The four team knock-out tournament took place over two match days on Wednesday 27th and Saturday 30 July 2011, with a final to determine the winner and a play-off to decide third place. All matches took place in the Hong Kong Stadium. The final was held between Chelsea and Aston Villa, with Chelsea winning 2–0, thus securing a record 2nd trophy. ^[6]

2013 Hong Kong

The 2013 Premier League Asia Trophy was played in Hong Kong from 24 to 27 July 2013.

The participating teams were Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Sunderland and South China.

The semi-finals took place on 24 July, but with torrential rain, the games were played over 80 minutes, rather than the usual 90 minutes. In the first game, Sunderland beat Tottenham Hotspur 3–1 to proceed to the final. Manchester City defeated South China 1–0 in the other semi-final.

Manchester City won the trophy after beating Sunderland 1–0 on 27 July 2013. Edin Džeko scored the game's only goal.

2015 Singapore

The 2015 Premier League Asia Trophy was played in Singapore from 15 to 18 of July 2015. The participants were Arsenal, Everton, Stoke City and the Singapore Selection XI team.Everton beat Stoke in the first match on penalties after the match ended 0–0 after 90 minutes. Arsenal beat a Singapore Select XI in the other match 4–0 with goals from Chuba Akpom (3) and Jack Wilshere. Stoke and Singapore played in the 3rd/4th place play off while the final was Everton against Arsenal, in which Arsenal won 3–1.

Winners

Year	Final			Third Place			Venue
	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Third place	Score	Fourth place
2003 Details	Chelsea	0–0 (5–4 pen.)	Newcastle United	Birmingham City	4–0	Malaysia	National Stadium, Kuala Lumpur
2005 Details	Bolton Wanderers	1–0	Thailand	Manchester City	1–1 (4–2 pen.)	Everton	National Stadium, Bangkok
2007 Details	Portsmouth	0–0 (4–2 pen.)	Liverpool	Fulham	4–1	South China	Hong Kong Stadium, Hong Kong
2009 Details	Tottenham Hotspur	3–0	Hull City	West Ham United	2–0	Beijing Guoan	Workers Stadium, Beijing
2011 Details	Chelsea	2–0	Aston Villa	Blackburn Rovers	3–0	Kitchee	Hong Kong Stadium, Hong Kong
2013 Details	Manchester City	1–0	Sunderland	Tottenham Hotspur	6–0	South China	Hong Kong Stadium, Hong Kong
2015 Details	Arsenal	3–1	Everton	Stoke City	2–0	Singapore Select XI	National Stadium, Singapore

References