Irish FA Translink Schools’ Gold Cup 2019 Kick Starts - Celebrating top NI schools football talent
The Irish FA Translink Schools Gold Cup 2019 commences on Tuesday 24th September. The competition proved a major success in schools football last year with Our Lady & St Patrick’s Knock narrowly defeating St Columb’s College in last years finals day.
The Translink Schools’ Gold Cup involves the only eight post-primary schools who have been awarded the Gold Schools Quality Mark accreditation by the Irish FA Foundation.
The Schools Quality Mark accreditation supports schools to put structures in place to develop football. The Gold Cup is the first competition involving schools playing each other across three age groups (U13, U15, U17).
The launch of this year’s competition in June included a draw to determine groups and fixtures for the three match days. The draw provided some interesting Match day one games with holders Our Lady and St Patrick’s, Knock traveling the short journey to Ashfield Boys school. Boys Model and Bangor Academy will make the longest journeys with matches against Holy Cross Strabane and St Columbs College respectively whilst match day one will finish with Laurelhill travelling to St Malachys College.
Michael Boyd, Director of Football Development in the Irish FA Foundation, said: “I am delighted to see the competition start its second year with Translink. The Schools Quality Mark is a vital aspect of the Irish FA’s ‘Let them play’ strategy with over 55 schools already accredited with the award which ensure participants have the best opportunity to play football in schools. I am looking forward to seeing the competition progress this year and hope to see more schools involved in the years to come.”
Chris Conway, Translink Group Chief Executive, said:
“As the main school transport provider in Northern Ireland, we’re committed to supporting pupil development and wellbeing. In particular, we value the importance of promoting an active and healthy lifestyle – something this competition is all about. After the fantastic success of the inaugural competition, I think we can all expect even more end-to-end action, talent and all-round good sportsmanship.
“I’d like to thank the IFA for working in partnership with Translink to deliver this fantastic initiative. I’d also like to pay tribute to all the coaches who train, motivate and inspire their players to be the best they can be. Good Luck to all the teams - I hope you enjoy another fantastic competition!”
To find out more about the Translink Schools’ Gold Cup visit www.irishfa.com/foundation/schools-programmes
The first round of games in the Translink Schools Gold Cup taking place on 24th September 2019 can be seen below:
Holy Cross v Boys Model
U13 – 1pm
U15 – 1pm
U17 – 2.30pm
