This weekend sees the second edition of the Katoni Cup, hosted by the Aberdeen youth academy, take place at Aberdeen Sports Village. The Dons 2007’s side claimed victory against the other elite Scottish academies in last year’s competition which combines traditional five a side rules with the Futsal and we are delighted that our partners at Katoni have committed to sponsoring the tournament.

The 2019 edition will have Celtic, Hearts, Hibernian, Inverness CT, Ross County, Hamilton Accies and Dundee will once again join Aberdeen in a highly competitive competition and it’s one Head of Academy Coaching Gavin Levey is looking forward to.

“Katoni were keen to do some work with the youth academy and the idea of this came on the back of myself being away with the SFA. We were discussing the formats of which children should be playing and I felt this could be a good idea. I gave John McLean at Katoni a shout and he thought it sounded like a really good event and we’d like to back it.

“They had a brilliant day at it and they’ve been able to support us in a lot of different ways. They are so valuable to these kind of initiatives.

“It was a real success last year and when we asked all the teams for feedback it came back really positive. We weren’t able to reach the stage of opening it up to other clubs because thankfully everybody who came wanted to come back. We haven’t needed to change very much as we’ve gone with the same format and we can’t wait for. We’re playing in the games hall so it’s quick and a high tempo, which really showcases the technique.”

The Dons and other clubs have often been required to venture outside of Scotland for competitive competition due to the set up in academies and, despite this being a one day indoor event, the players are still able to find that competition with every match meaning something.

“You could see last year what every game mean. The nature of the competition meant there were play offs across the table, with even the seventh and eighth placed teams having a match and playing it like a derby.

“We feel there’s a place for tournament football. All over Europe you have U9’s at academies playing in competition and learn about winning and losing. This is the first in a series of tournament’s we’re taking part in and we need to expose our kids to the different environments.”

The tournament at the Aberdeen Sports Village will be a fun filled afternoon with music in between matches, individual awards and will combine the elements of competition that come with being footballers. With the move to the new facilities at Kingsford edging closer, Gavin is keen to ensure the academy can one day host it’s own competition.

“We have an idea of what we want to do. There’s lots of teams that have helped us on the way across Europe and we would like to open the invitation at Kingsford.

“Last year was probably more about the event because we were hosting, as we are again. It was just very fortunate that it was our academy that became champions. With the group going along this time it will be an even tougher challenge.”

The victory this time last term started an excellent season for academy teams including victory in Ireland and a runners up placing at the prestigious Iber Cup in Denmark culminated in the U16s winning the Scottish Cup in November.

“For us to keep getting a place at these tournaments we have to be on performance because we understand that in Europe we aren’t the brand that we are in Scotland. There’s a tournament culture especially in the likes of Holland and Germany so we have to be performing and it’s important the kids understand about the highs and lows that come with the game.”

Good luck to all the young Reds this Saturday and lets hope they bring back the trophy once again. The Katoni Cup gets underway at 12.15pm on Saturday in the gym hall and the coaches are encouraging supporters to make it another fantastic occasion.