August 1st, 2nd and 3rd, 2009 the LITTO EUROFOOT football tournament for under 19's was at its 9th edition. Nine years of premium football of some of the finest teams of Europe, nine years also of a highly enjoyable yet very professionally organised tournament. As an inspiration to but also in favor of many young local football players. Herbert Van Hove, one of many loyal fans - first as sponsor, but recently also as one of the directors - looks back on nine years of EUROFOOT.

It all started in 2000, the year Belgium hosted the European Championship. At that time we had 16 teams participating and even an American selection. In a final worth premier league football, the French from Lille beated the Spaniards of Espanyol Barcelona.

In 2001, we continued with 16 teams and we welcomed for the first time the Academy of the London Spurs who never missed a single edition since. In an all Belgian final, Club Brugge was clearly better than Sporting Charleroi.

And the juniors from Bruges extended their title in 2002. This time they won from Germinal Beerschot, on penalties after a rained out yet thrilling final. On request of the teams themselves, the number of participants had been reduced to 12, allowing for longer games (2 x 25') in which the better teams could really make a difference.

And the gods must have been on our side since then, as the next 5 editions were sunny all tournament long. The spectators certainly enjoyed it because they became more numerous year after year. Resulting in increasing revenues for the local youth teams.

The 12-team formula - 6 Belgian and 6 foreign - was continued since, but the series of victories by Club Brugge was stopped by Willem II, also one of the loyal participants of our tournament.

The 5th edition in 2004 was a first milestone, but certainly not the last. After Espanyol Barcelona the year before, we now welcomed 'big brother' FC Barcelona. They played themselves rigth into the finales, where they were defeated by - again - Club Brugge.

In 2005, the Portuguese neighbours of Barcelona - Benfica Lissabon - participated for the second time, but they were not very convincing and ended olny eight, just ahead of the newcomers from Stockholm: Djurgaarden IF. In the German-Belgian final, Anderlecht managed to beat Eintracht Frankfurt.

The 2006 tournament will unfortunately be remembered as the tournament where one of the Spurs players suffered a hart attack in the very first match. Thanks to the immediate reaction of one of our volunteers, the medical emergency team of the nearby hospital managed to save the young footballer. The boy survived and has recovered well, but his football carreer will have suffered from this incident.

It goes without saying that his team members were severely shocked and they prefered to leave the tournament. A selection of local footballers grabbed the opportunity to play against the future stars of football. The 2006 edition was again won by Willem II.

Tottenham insisted on participating again in 2007, and they returned in style by talking their first victory in the freshly renamed LITTO EUROFOOT Tournament.

More details on past and recent editions can be found by clicking on the links in the column next to this.