Intro to Iber Cup and Madrid Sur Cup

I have refereed for 5 years, but nothing will prepare me for the voyage I will be taking this summer. Last Spring, I applied to Tournaments Abroad (TA) to be an official for the upcoming Iber Cup located in Estoril, Portugal. When I applied, I did not expect to be selected, I hoped that perhaps several years from now I would have the good fortunes of being chosen. When I received that notification from Tournaments Abroad that they had selected ME out of the hundreds of applicants they received to be among those travelling to the Estoril Coast in July 2013, I was ecstatic! There were still many steps to be completed and I knew it was not a sure thing yet. First one had to gain the approval of the Alberta Soccer Association, and the Canadian Soccer Association if you were to attend. I was not sure if it would be easy to be approved, and was not sure if the governing bodies of soccer in Canada would be so willing to allow a seventeen year old referee to represent Canada at such a large and prestigious tournament overseas. Luckily for me, the contact at Alberta Soccer Association was very enthusiastic for what she described as the trip of a lifetime, which is exactly what it is. I was approved very quickly by the associations, and was thrilled to be given this opportunity; however there was still a lot that needed to happen between then and the tournament.

I have been speaking with the President of Tournaments Abroad, Daniel Curcio over the past few months, enquiring about flights, the best way to travel and such, and was very impressed by the work done by Daniel and the rest of the gang at TA. Not only had they accepted me to ref the Iber Cup, but after raising the issue about it being a long way to travel for one week, I was also granted a spot refereeing the Madrid Sur Cup in Madrid the week prior, this was for real, and really starting to come together! Daniel has continued to be a great help with booking flights, and planning my stay in Madrid and Lisbon, and I look forward to meeting him in person at the Tournament, along with meeting all of my other colleagues and developing lifetime friendships with referees all around the world.

Now prior to this, the majority of us have no idea what the Iber Cup or Madrid Sur Cup is, so I’ll try as best I can to give the run down. The Iber Cup is one of the world’s largest youth soccer tournaments in the world, and the quality of the play is unparallelled. It also welcomes teams from 45 different countries on all 6 continents. To put that in perspective, the FIFA world cup welcomes 32. The graph is the 14 most represented nations, and the current tally is as follows: 253 teams have registered for the Iber Cup 2013 coming from all 6 continents. 45 countries represented. Europe (UEFA) will be represented by 23 nations. Follows first AFC with 7 (India, Philippines, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Singapore), then CONCACAF with 6 federations (USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras). Then we have CONMEBOL with 5 (Brasil, Argentina, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia), 4 for CAF (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Zambia) and we close with 1 for OFC (Australia) !

 

There hasn't been nearly as much information on the Madrid Cup and from my impression, while it does not appear to be as well known, it is still an equally competitive and skilled tournament. There will be less international referees, and more Spanish local referees. I believe I am one of 20 international referees going to Madrid, and the only Canadian, compared to the 130 international refs attending the Iber Cup and the 9 other Canadians. It is expected that I will ref more games in my week in Madrid then my week in Portugal, probably 18 or so in Madrid compared to the 14-15 in Portugal. This will be a fantastic tournament, Madrid is a beautiful city, and the temperature should be easier to handle for a Canadian like me not used to reffing in the summer heat of coastal Portugal. Below is the "Trailer" of the Madrid Sur Cup

 

Both tournaments have much of the same things in common, an amazing calibre of Soccer being played, an international feel, a friendly atmosphere, and the experience of a life time for a young aspiring Canadian, filled with numerous challenges, but ample reward if you work for it. Expect more posts to follow with more details on the tournament as I receive them, and additional information about my travel plans!

For more information on either tournament, check out the website for the Madrid Sur Cup or the Iber Cup. You can also find more information on http://www.tournamentsabroad.com/

Thanks for reading! Kevin