The third Milan Football Cup is now well known among Milanese students and aims to spread throughout Italy. Let’s see how it works and what the future plans of the institution are.
High schools and institutes in Milan compete in the Milan Football Cup
Milan Football Cup reached its third edition. The match is on March 14 this year sees as many as twenty-four schools in the starting blocksAn extraordinary achievement for an activity that started with a simple idea from a group of children: to play football with colleagues from other schools.
In the first year, only six teams participated, and the final victory was won by Liceo Scientifico Elio Vittorini. By 2023 it had already reached twelveThe final was played between Virgilio and Vittorio Veneto, with the latter winning 3-1.
Success of the Milan Football Cup
The tournament grew out of an idea by Ludovico Lombardo, then a twenty-year-old history student at the Liceo Agnesi, who, together with a group of friends and colleagues, put together what is now an operation of a very high level of complexity. number Schools and institutes throughout Milan and whose activities have reached national prominence.
Registration requests for 2024 became so numerous that organizers had to hold qualifying rounds for the tournament, resulting in twenty-four teams that have already started playing. And so it will be seen in this season’s Milan Football Cup More than six hundred people attended, including players and staff: truly remarkable figures for a project initiated with the goal of “neighbourhood”.
Then there are the spectators: they 1,500 in last year’s final (Cristiano Giuntoli’s presence was seen at the Napoli ds awards ceremony in Juventus today) and it is believed that there will be even more this year, with the wave of popularity hitting the tournament.
In fact, it’s happening right now at the same time Support from Milan MunicipalityReceived by Mayor Sala at the beginning of March 2024, together with the captain of the winning team and the organizers of the tournament: in short, the project has remarkable growth prospects.
The idea of Lombardo and his working group is now Exporting the Milan Football Cup model beyond the borders of MilanTurin is on the agenda of the next school tournaments, which will be held together with Rome, Bologna, Como and Genoa and will be included in the inter-institutional competitions.
MFC: 2024 tournament, how does it work?
As announced, the schools participating in the 2024 edition of the Milan Football Cup consist of twenty-four people and are divided into six groups of four. Just like in the Champions League The team was analyzed before the group drawAlso to prevent the formation of groups that are too unbalanced with each other and are placed in four different brackets based on their “ranking”.
One-way matches are played in two 25-minute halves with 5-minute intervals. Substitutions are unlimited and even those who have been substituted can return to the game, but there is an important rule to follow: Substitutions must be made in no more than three slots during the match. There is no official refereebut the men from the organization who manage the refereeing part.
The top two teams from each group advance directly to the knockout round, which extends from the round of 16 to the final stage of the final. best four thirdsA system that rewards the most accurate teams, selected by analyzing direct matches, the ratio between goals scored and goals conceded, and the number of yellow and red cards collected.
There are more games in the final stage: two halves of 35 minutes in 10 minute intervals. In these first weeks of the tournament, some matches were played that were characterized by great balances, except for the 5-0 situation scored by Cardano Institute of Higher Education (perhaps the team that made the best impression so far). against Einstein Science High School (which won two in the meantime, anyway) and Virgilio’s 4 to 1 against Bottoni.
It is worth mentioning this as a note that allows you to perceive it more directly. the boys’ dedication and professionalism Organizer Milan Football Club as much as possible on the online page of the tournament results even access the report cards sectionThis was also done very well, game by game.
A demonstration of Ludovico Lombardo and his working group trying to approach an event that was very small and amateur on paper. true Champions League professionalism.
A beautiful story of youth dedication with the hope of continuing the tournament in the future. opens even stronger On the gender equality front, the possibility of including a women’s division in the tournament or having both boys’ and girls’ teams on the roster.
