The ONeills Foyle Cup, which will be held throughout the North West region from 20th to 25th July this year, is still open for entries.
Officially the closing date was January 31, but the organisers are accepting entries in the tournament, up until 9th February.
The event is the most popular youth soccer tournament in Ireland, UK and Europe as evidenced by the number of teams which competed in the cross community 2025 tournament – 950 team entries, over 20,000 participants, taking part in 3664 matches over the course of the week. The event caters for boys’ teams (8-19), Girls’ teams (8-17) and sports with disability teams.
Teams are placed into geographically seeded groups and play a series of matches against each other in group stages. By the end of the group stage, teams are separated into Cup competitions in line with their group standings. Meaning, the best performing clubs in the group, will compete for the ‘Foyle Cup’ and other teams are placed into subsidiary competitions. In doing this, the aim is to allow each team to get the same number of games and play at least one match per day for the entire week 9 in mini soccer two matches per day). Depending on the entry demand, it may be necessary for some age groups to play a second game on one of these days.
In previous years team entries have included Wolves, Sheffield United, Altrincham, Montpellier, Paris St Germain, Norwich City, Everton America (USA), Celtic FC, Partick Thistle, Kilmarnock, Hearts FC, Bayern Hamilton Academy, FP Suomi (Norway), Slata FD (Sweden), Dallas F.C. (USA) – to name a few! More professional and more clubs are recognising what the Foyle Cup has to offer and our participants are coming from all over the globe. In 2025 not only had we entries from America, Canada, Europe and UK, but teams travelled from South Africa and Australia to participate.
The event is sponsored by Derry Strabane District Council, Causeway Coast & Glens Borough Council, Ulster University, North West Regional College, Choice Housing, Derry Credit Union, Seagate, Inner City Trust, Brunswick Moviebowl
For more details visit the tournament website www.foylecup.com or e mail oneillsfoylecup@gmail.com.
