The party’s not over yet as Foyle Cup waits in wings

The event will run from Monday through to Saturday and with more than 35 venues across the North West area, there are matches taking place nearby.

The tournament this year has an entry of 220 teams and during the week of the Foyle Cup there will be more matches played in the event than the Premier League in England play in one and a half seasons with 768 games in total scheduled.

Another exciting development is the launch of Smartphone Apps to help managers, parents and spectators stay up to date with games throughout the week.

The app is now available in the App store for all Android phones and tablets, with the Apple version expected today (Wednesday).

Not only has it fixtures and results - it even has maps and directions to all grounds - invaluable for everyone next week.

The quality of entry this year is as high as it has ever been and boasts the return of several previous winners – Celtic, Hearts, Norwich City, Sheffield United, Institute, Derry City, Dungannon United, Ballinamallard, Inishowen YL and Donegal Schools - to name but a few.

Many local club teams are entered in the U10 and 11 sections of the event and this affords all family members the opportunity to support and witness the undoubted skills of the stars of the future. Derry City, present Eircom league squad boasts 90 per cent of players who have previously played with local teams in the Hughes Insurance Foyle Cup competition.

There will be many scouts in attendance from English and Scottish clubs looking to discover the next star player as many players have been discovered playing at this event over the past 20 years – the likes of Shay Given, Darron Gibson, Daniel Lafferty, Robbie Keane, James McClean, Paddy McCourt, Stephen Ireland, John O’Shea and Kevin Kilbane.

In the past two years so many local players have been signed by cross channel clubs.

Players like Mikele and Kelvin Kennedy (Charlton), Michael Martin (Charlton), Conor Quigley (Liverpool), Aaron McEneff (Spurs), Sean Mullan (Sheffield Wednesday), Stephen Foster (Swansea) and Seanna Lynch (Sheffield Wednesday).

Tournament chairman Michael Hutton reinforced this point and believes it’s a great chance for local young talent to showcase their skills in front of the numerous scouts.

“For an English League club to sign a local player and develop him further, could in effect save the club millions of pounds,” he said.

“They are very much on the look out for the next Roy Keane, Steven Davis or Jonny Evans.

“That is why so many scouts flock to this event.”

“We have schedules our matches to take place at 3pm, 5pm and 7pm in order that as many people as possible can attend our matches.

“We appeal to the public locally to come out in large numbers and support the challenges facing our local teams as they try to match the efforts of Derry Colts, winners at under 17 and 19 last year.”