Heading into the second year of its existence, the International Champions Cup Futures tournament is preparing for another year of growth.

After a successful run in its debut last summer, girls clubs will get the opportunity to compete at this year’s edition of the event, along with the boys format remaining in place.

Last year, Relevent Sports Group launched the ICC Futures tournament, looking to create a youth event that mirrored the worldwide exhibition circuit featuring some of Europe’s biggest names. The second ICC Futures tournament is slated for December 10-16 of this year, and will be hosted at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

“We’re extremely excited about the opportunity,” Relevent Sports Group CEO Daniel Sillman told topdrawersoccer.com. “We look at the Little League World Series of baseball as an inspirational model for what we can create in soccer and I think soccer being the biggest sport in the world, there is endless opportunity to take advantage of that.”

The 2018 edition of the event featured 24 boys teams: eight MLS DA sides, eight European sides and eight All-Star teams from states around the country. Significant alterations have been made for the 2019 boys field. While the teams will be from the same age group (Under-14, born in 2006), eight will be from UEFA clubs – Arsenal, Paris St. Germain, Roma and Tottenham have all accepted invites. Along with that, there four Boys DA teams, four MLS academy teams, a yet-to-be determined academy side from South American (CONMEBOL) and CONCACAF (Chivas de Guadalajara), a China All-Star side, and four U.S. regional sides will make the trip to Florida. Rounding out the field is a team comprised of players identified at Alianza de Futbol event, a program to identify Latino talented based in the U.S., now owned by Relevent Sprots Group.

Similar to the ICC women’s club tournament that was launched last year, a 12-team girls club event is set to join in 2019. Four Girls DA sides, four regional All-Star teams will be joined by four UEFA sides (Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Paris St. Germain have agreed to send youth teams). The age group on display will be a year older than the boys, with Under-15 teams competing (2005 birth year).

“It’s a really broad mix of international teams from Asia, to South America, to North America, international and European football clubs’ youth teams, obviously MLS, and because of the time window we get the Development Academy teams in the U.S. and the regional All-Star teams,” Sillman said.

The biggest change between this year’s event and the inaugural edition is the calendar shift. The first competition took place last summer in July; for a variety of reasons, December was targeted to hold the 2019 edition. It opened the door for teams in the Development Academy to be more involved, and Relevent collaborated with U.S. Soccer to get boys and girls DA sides into the tournament.

“We’ve created a time window in December that can accommodate all of the international teams as well as the domestic teams so it makes for the best competition,” Sillman said.

For the tournament itself, there are minimal changes to the competitive aspect. Teams will be drawn into groups, and based upon finish, will enter a knockout round at three different tiers (Championship, Bowl and Plate). There will be quarterfinals, semifinals and a championship to determine the winner from each level.

Along with the tweaks to when the tourney takes place and the addition of a girls circuit, another big change for 2019 is adding girls and boys Regional All-Star sides. They’ll hail from four, to-be determined regions from around the country, with the aim of increasing the scope of players available for the event.

“We wanted to do regional All-Star teams because it created a broader set of talent and it also allowed us to accommodate the Development Academy teams from U.S. Soccer, as well as the MLS not be too redundant,” Sillman explained. “Last year we tried state All-Star teams during the inaugural competition, we felt we get a better platform for the kids to have regional teams that cover four U.S. regions while still delineating a difference between the DA teams and the MLS academy teams.”

For those that earn a trip to IMG for the tournament, it’s set to provide plenty of exposure for both the boys and girls. A renewed TV deal means the competition will be visible on various ESPN platforms – as an example, last year’s final in the Championship tier was shown on ESPNU – and the time of year allows for college coaches to potentially scout the event. There’s the added possibility of competing in front of various academy setups from around world soccer as well, that could potentially open up the door for any up-and-coming American.

“The TV deal with ESPN [gives] these kids a chance to be seen globally by their friends, peers, coaches, scouts, and it’s providing the kids a chance to show off their skill to take their game to a next level,” Sillman said. “Whether it’s college recruiting, academy teams in Europe, the U.S., whatever their goals are we want to provide them a platform to be seen and improve. Providing a deeper platform of clubs so that we can provide an amazing fan experience for people that want to watch soccer globally and watch the next up-and-coming and rising stars, because they’re not too far off going pro at that age.”

Heading into year two, things are going to continue to ramp up as the ICC Futures tournament seeks to become a major youth destination in North American soccer – and the world.

“This is meant to be the No. 1 most elite soccer competition for youth in the world,” Sillman said. “I can’t say it enough, we look at how well the Little League World Series has done for baseball players and we want to be that for soccer. We want to make sure we can give as many talented soccer players a chance as possible regardless of what their means are.”

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