Tournament of Paris

Tournament Of Paris

The Tournoi de Paris is an annual two-day pre-season football tournament hosted by Ligue 1 side Paris Saint-Germain and held at the Parc des Princes, the club's home ground. From 1957 to 1976 it was held late in the season and since 1977 it is played before the start of the season. The tournament is the equivalent to the Amsterdam Tournament and the Emirates Cup held by Ajax and Arsenal, respectively. The cup competition is named after Paris, the city where the tournament takes place. It is broadcasted by French premium pay television channel Canal+.

The Tournoi de Paris involves four teams including current hosts, Paris Saint-Germain. Clubs that have competed in the tournament since its foundation include Anderlecht, Santos, Fluminense, Red Star Belgrade, Benfica, Montpellier, Vasco da Gama, Botafogo, Sparta Prague, Feyenoord, Valencia, Marseille, Waregem, Romania, Atlético Mineiro, and Netherlands. PSG have played in the tournament every year since 1975 and are the all-time record-holders, having won the competition seven times. Belgian outfit Anderlecht have three titles and are the most successful team other than the hosts to appear in the tournament. The current champions are Bordeaux, finishing first in the standings ahead of PSG, Roma and Porto in the 2010 edition.

The first edition of the tournament, held in 1957, is remembered dearly in Brazil by Vasco da Gama's rooters, as Vasco da Gama beat then European Champion Real Madrid in the final match by 4 X 3. This match has historic significance: from June 13th 1956 (date when Real Madrid was crowned the first European Continental Champion ever) to the end of year 1959 (last year before 1960, the inaugural year of the Intercontinental Cup), that Vasco da Gama 4 X 3 Real Madrid match was the sole defeat of Real Madrid (European Champion all over this period) by a non-European club, according to the full list of Real Madrid's matches available at the site Leyenda Blanca, a madridista site. (the Intercontinental Cup is cited as it was the competition that standardized, with the fixed criterium of European Champions Cup winner X Copa Libertadores winner, the European/South American intercontinental title from 1960 to 2004).

The Tournoi de Paris consists of four matches played at the Parc des Princes. The games takes place over two or three days in July or August. From 1957 to 1993, the tournament was played in knockout format. Since 2010, the tournament uses the group-stage format. A victory results in three points; a draw in one; and a defeat in none. If two teams finish with the same number of points, they are separated by: the highest number of goals scored, the number of cards received, or the timing of their first goal scored. As it is a pre-season friendly tournament, games are typically not played as competitively as matches during the main season. In spite of this, it is still taken as a useful gauge of each team's ability going into the new season.