What Is The ICC Series?

The International Champions Cup (ICC) is an annual club association football friendly exhibition competition.

The competition features club teams from Europe playing pre-season friendly matches.

Originally played in the United States and Canada, the competition has, in recent years, also been played at venues in China, Australia, Mexico and others across Europe.

The ICC was founded by Relevant Sports, a division of RSE ventures, a sports venture firm founded in 2012 by billionaire real estate magnate and Miami Dolphins owner, Stephen Ross and Matt Higgins, a former executive with the New York Jets. It replaced the World Football Challenge, which had featured a more 0even distribution of European- and American-based sides.

 
How It’s Played

The format has changed in each competition. The first two tournaments featured eight teams organized into two groups of four. Subsequent tournaments had different numbers of teams in the three different locations.

In the 2013 edition, the participants were designated as part an “Eastern” and a “Western” group based on the location of their group stage matches. The groups were not played as a round-robin[all-play-all tournament]; rather, the winners of the first-round matches played each other in the second round, and the first-round losers also played each other in the second round. The two teams with two wins from the first two matches advanced to the final.

The other three teams of each group were then ranked based on their records in the two matches played, with a game won in regulation time counting for two points and a game won on a deciding penalty shootout (no tied games were permitted) counting for one, with traditional methods of ranking – goal difference, goals scored, etc – determining order in case of two teams having the same points total.

After the teams in each group had been ranked, they were paired against their opposite number from the other group, second playing second, third playing third, fourth playing fourth, with the results of these final matches determining a definitive placing for each team, from first place to eighth.

 
Revised Format

In the 2014 season, this awkward system was changed, the teams are grouped non-geographically and play a round-robin format with one game played against each other team in their group. After each team has played three games, the top-placed team from each group contested a final to determine the overall winner.

For the first two years (2013–2014), Guinness signed on to be the title sponsor for the entire tournament which, at that time, was only in North America.

For the 2015 competition, there is no overall sponsor, rather there is a unique Presenting Sponsor for each regional tournament. The North American tournament is presented by Guinness, whereas the Australian tournament is presented by Audi.

Record UEFA Champions winners, Real Madrid won the maiden edition of the ICC trophy in 2013 with English Premier Club, Chelsea as runners-up. Manchester United won the 2014 edition like the previous year held only in North America and Europe. Serial winners of the French Ligue 1, Paris Saint Germain (PSG) won the maiden revised edition in 2015 and Major League Soccer (MLS) side, New York Red Bulls were the runner-ups.

What Is The ICC Series?