The Newcastle Jets will return to the Weifang Cup for the second successive season as local youth players gain valuable exposure to international competition.
The Weifang Cup is an international youth football tournament that was founded in 2006, and routinely attracts development teams from some of the best club sides and football nations from around the globe.
Led by Labinot Haliti, the selection of players from the club’s National Premier League (NPL) squad will take on Shanghai SIPG, Athletico Boca Juniors and Shandong Luneng in Group B.
Last time around the Jets beat Shandong (3-1), drew with Club Brugge (2-2) and lost to Mexican side Chivas Guadalajara (3-0) in the group stage before eventually going down to FC Tokyo (3-2) in a play-off for seventh.
Head Coach, Labinot Haliti said that last year’s experience will be invaluable to his players.
“It’s a tough competition, the conditions are hot and humid and we play number of games over a short period,” Haliti said.
“We’ve got a number of boys who have been here last year and also took part in the Hong Kong Soccer Sevens – they’ve seen what it takes to be successful in these sort of competitions.
“We’ve had a couple of training sessions over here already and the facilities and the set up here (at Weifang) is first class.”
The Newcastle Jets are proudly sponsored by the University of Newcastle for the 2018 Weifang Cup.
Fixtures:
Sunday 29 July
Newcastle Jets v Shanghai SIPG
Kick off: 9am (local) 11am (AEST)
Live stream: Click here
Monday 30 July
Newcastle Jets v Athletico Boca Juniors
Kick off: 9am (local) 11am (AEST)
Live stream: Click here
Wednesday 1 August
Newcastle Jets v Shandong Luneng
Kick off: 4pm (local) 6pm (AEST)
Live stream: Click here
2018 Weifang Cup
When: Sunday 29 July to Sunday 8 August 2018
Where: Weifang City, Shandong Province, China
Participating teams: Newcastle Jets, China National Youth Team, Santos Laguna, Spartak Moscow, RCD Espanyol, Shandong Luneng, Shanghai SIPG, Athletico Boca Juniors, Dalian Yifang FC, Deportivo Brasil, SL Benfica, River Plate.
