European glry for semi-prfessinal and amteur cubs

Last year's tournament saw two groups of four play each other home and away, with the winners of each section coming together for the final in Rimini in Italy in June. The other six sides were also in attendance to play matches based on their group standings to decide a final ranking먹튀검증업체

And while FC United triumphed in the final with a 2-0 win over Prague Raptors to lift the trophy, it was the human stories and moments the competition created that stood out for the Fenix founders.

"It was amazing and everyone was so enthusiastic," Leo says. "We had a very diverse composition of players coming from all over the world and with every kind of experience, from UPS drivers to university students.

"For some of the players to play in another country was great. For some it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I remember there was one guy I saw from Gambia who was almost crying when he got on a plane to play in Poland.

"It was his first time catching a plane, so to get that먹튀사이트 experience because he was playing in the Fenix Trophy is the best projection of the competition you can make."

For victors FC United, it was a chance to get their hands on a special piece of silverware and give their fans, some of whom used to travel across Europe for big Champions League nights with Manchester United, an opportunity to relive those memories in their new guise.

Fitting the extra matches and travel into an already busy non-league schedule did come with challenges for the Reds' part-time players, but few were complaining.

Reynolds says: "Playing in Milan on a Wednesday evening, we set off on the Wednesday morning to fly over, had the game and travelled back on Thursday afternoon. We got home on Thursday evening, the lads had to go to work on the Friday and we were travelling three hours to play Morpeth away on the Saturday.

"It makes me laugh when I hear these Premier League managers moaning about European and league fixtures.

"It's full on and there's no time to rest, especially for these lads who are engineers or electricians, and don't have the benefit of a massage or a swimming pool to aid recovery between matches, but먹튀검증커뮤니티 they'll never forget the experience. As hard and demanding as it is, we wouldn't change it for the world."

The second edition of the Fenix Trophy is about to get under way, and it has already grown in size, with nine clubs now taking part in a three-group first phase before the finals tournament this summer.

FC United's defence kicks off against KSK Beveren on 15 November, with Spanish side Cuenca Mestallistes completing their group.

Brera's Leo Aleotti is happy with the competition's progress so far, but has ambitions for it to grow even further in the future if budgets allow.

"There are three new teams and two new countries entering this year, but there's lots of room left to grow and improve," he says.

"This current format is great and as long as we keep토토사이트 the numbers to 12, 15 or 18 teams, we can implement this three-team group format, although at some point we'll need to make a jump to another type of format - perhaps a knockout phase - that enables us to have a much wider network.

"A huge part of the selection is the financial affordability of clubs and it's harder for those from less wealthy regions of Europe to self-fund playing in four or maybe six games each year.