Four Nations Tournament (1979–2008)

The Four Nations Tournament was an annual semi-professional football competition in Europe. It was last won by the England C in 2008, the last tournament held.

The tournament was originally held from 1979 to 1987 between teams from England, Scotland, Italy and the Netherlands. It was brought back from 2002 to 2008 with semi-pro teams England C, Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales competing. The revived competition had a format of all nations playing each other and table with the team finishing top declared the winner, and was held towards the end of the British domestic football season.

History

From 1979 to 1987 it was known as Torneo delle Quattro Nazioni per Rappresentative di Lega, and was originally competed for by Scotland Semi-Pro, England Semi-Pro, Netherlands Amateurs and Italy Serie C U-21s. The tournament was cancelled in 1986 and abandoned from 1988 to 2001.[1]

When the tournament returned in 2002, the semi-pro teams of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales competed. The Gibraltar national team replaced Ireland in 2008.[1]

The tournament has been won six times by England, three times by Wales and Scotland, and twice by Italy.[1]

There was talk of the tournament returning in 2009 but it did not happen. Supposedly, Scotland were rumoured to be considering a withdrawal with Northern Ireland ready to step in and join the semi-pro teams of Wales and England and the Gibraltar national team.[2] Scotland withdrew from the competition after 2008 because of a lack of funding.[3] Gibraltar later also chose also not to return for 2009. This left the tournament in doubt because it had only two teams signed up for next year's competition.[4]

Format

The first tournament consisted of two semi-finals, a final and a third/fourth play-off. Every other tournament was a group stage with each national side playing each other once in a round robin format. The competition was always hosted as a one-off tournament by one of the competing nations, usually the competition was stage by each competing national side within a period of every four years.[1]

Winners

Year Winner Second Third Fourth
England 1979 England Semi-Pro Holland Amateurs Italy Serie C U-21 Scotland Semi-Pro
Netherlands 1980 Scotland Semi-Pro England Semi-Pro Italy Serie C U-21 Holland Amateurs
Italy 1981 England Semi-Pro Italy Serie C U-21 Scotland Semi-Pro Holland Amateurs
Scotland 1982 Scotland Semi-Pro England Semi-Pro Holland Amateurs Italy Serie C U-21
England 1983 England Semi-Pro Scotland Semi-Pro Holland Amateurs Italy Serie C U-21
Italy 1984 Italy Serie C U-21 England Semi-Pro Holland Amateurs Scotland Semi-Pro
Netherlands 1985 Scotland Semi-Pro England Semi-Pro Italy Serie C U-21 Holland Amateurs
Scotland 1986 Cancelled
Scotland 1987 Italy Serie C U-21 England Semi-Pro Scotland Semi-Pro Holland Amateurs
1988-2001 No Record
England 2002 Wales Semi-Pro Republic of Ireland Semi-Pro England Semi-Pro Scotland Semi-Pro
Wales 2003 England Semi-Pro Scotland Semi-Pro Republic of Ireland Semi-Pro Wales Semi-Pro
Scotland 2004 Wales Semi-Pro Scotland Semi-Pro England Semi-Pro Republic of Ireland Semi-Pro
Republic of Ireland 2005 England Semi-Pro Scotland Semi-Pro Wales Semi-Pro Republic of Ireland Semi-Pro
England 2006 Wales Semi-Pro England Semi-Pro Republic of Ireland Semi-Pro Scotland Semi-Pro
Scotland 2007 England Semi-Pro Wales Semi-Pro Scotland Semi-Pro Republic of Ireland Semi-Pro
Wales 2008 England Semi-Pro Wales Semi-Pro Scotland Semi-Pro Gibraltar

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Four Nations Semi-Pro Tournament (1979-2008) RSSSF. Retrieved 20-10-2013.
  2. ↑ Four Nations Tournament 2009 Unofficial Blog. 07-11-2008. 20-10-2013.
  3. ↑ SFA pulls plug on semi-pro team scotsman.com. 07-11-2008. Retrieved 24-10-2013.
  4. ↑ Four Nations Set to Fold welsh-premier.com. Retrieved 24-10-2013.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/10/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.