Viktor Bannikov tournament: 17th international competitions will be held on August 25-31

05.01.2020 15:05

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

At the end of August, the youth national team of Ukraine U-16 (at that time already U-17 - players not older than 2004 born) will take part in the Victor Bannikov Tournament.

The traditional, 17th international tournament under the auspices of the UAF in memory of the first president of the national football federation Viktor Maksimovich Bannikov will take place from 25 to 31 August 2020. Among its participants are the youth national teams of Ukraine, Armenia, Latvia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Turkey, Finland and Slovakia. 

We will add that for Sergiy Nagornyak's team the tournament will be one of the stages of preparation for the Euro-2021 (U-17) qualifying round, which will be held in Georgia in October.

Winners of the Viktor Bannikov Tournament

The first winner of the Bannikov Tournament in 2002 was the national team of Poland. But most often - six times (2003, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2018) - Ukrainians won the competition. Four more times the strongest team was the national team of Turkey (2004, 2007, 2013, 2019), twice - the team of Georgia (2016, 2017). The Italians (2008), the Serbs (2009) and the Czechs (2010) triumphed once. In 2014 and 2015, due to the unstable situation in Ukraine, the tournament was not held.

Viktor Bannikov

(1938-2001)

Honored Master of Sports. He became famous as a goalkeeper, five times was included in the list of 33 best football players of the USSR. Multiple champion and winner of the USSR Cup as a member of Dynamo. Member of the symbolic "Lev Yashin Club" - 138 matches without conceded goals. He was a member of the USSR national team. Bronze medalist of the 1966 World Cup, silver medalist of Euro-1972. Honored Coach of Ukraine and the USSR, Honored Worker of Physical Culture and Sports of Ukraine. In 1991-1996 he headed the Football Federation of Ukraine. He was awarded the UEFA Order of Merit, FIFA and UEFA Gold Medals.