A major vehicle for Dunedin football survived a scare this week when the Milk Cup tournament in Ireland lost its financial sponsor.
However, a replacement stepped in, and the prestigious youth tournament will continue as the Dale Farm Milk Cup, much to the relief of coach Neil Mackenzie, who is preparing an Otago squad for this year.
''It's quite a relief,'' said Mackenzie, who has taken Otago teams to Coleraine for more than 10 years, and actually brought back the Milk Cup plate in 2012.
During those years, the Foydat (Football Otago Youth Development Trust) team has played against youth teams from such famous clubs as Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Porto and Bayern Munich, as well as Irish county teams.
This year's tournament runs from July 27 to August 1. Last year, the travelling group played matches in Los Angeles en route, and this year, games in Manchester are being organised by former Otago United coach Terry Phelan.
At a recent meeting, Foydat bade farewell to an original organiser, Clarke Walker, whose contacts helped Dunedin gain the original Milk Cup invitation. Walker intends to live in Fiji. Mackenzie has gathered a hard-working crew around him, including Andy Duncan, Matt Scholes, Dusty Quinn, Kevin Scoullar, Richard Kerr-Bell, Tony Martin and other keen coaches to help train the present squad.
''Probably the most important new helper is Greg Glendinning, whose role is to raise finance to diminish costs in what is essentially a self-funded group venture,'' Mackenzie said.
The large playing squad, which includes youngsters from Central Otago, is training hard, and a final travelling squad will be named in a few weeks.
There are a handful of warm-up matches this weekend for the coming FootballSouth Premier League, which starts on April 5.
Northern and Technical clash in two matches, with kick-offs at Prospect Park at noon and 1.45pm today. Caversham plays Northern Hearts at 2pm at Forrester Park, and at the same ground, Roslyn-Wakari plays Mosgiel at 1pm.
Also training hard are Dunedin Technical's under-17 squads. Two teams (girls and boys) will head for Auckland next weekend to compete in the Auckland City invitational tournament.
Technical reached the final last year.
