Peace Cup Information & Peace Cup Links at HealthHaven.com

Peace Cup
Founded	2003
Region	International
Number of teams	8 (12 in 2009)
Current champions	Aston Villa
Website	www.peacecup.com

The opening ceremony of 2003 competition

The Peace Cup is an invitational pre-season friendly football tournament for club teams, currently held every two years by the Sunmoon Peace Football Foundation. It is contested by the eight clubs from several continents, though 12 teams participated in 2009. The first three competitions were held in South Korea, and the 2009 Peace Cup Andalucia was held in Madrid and Andalusia, Spain.^[1]^[2] Previous winners are PSV, Tottenham Hotspur, Lyon, and Aston Villa, who are current champions, having won the most recent final in Seville against Juventus on 2 August 2009.^[3]

The tournament was originally organised and held in South Korea and contested in 2003, 2005, and 2007 between eight clubs from various countries, including the Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, which is owned by the organizing company.

A corresponding event for women's teams began in 2006 with the name "Peace Queen Cup", featuring eight women's national teams from five continents.^[4]

[edit] History and Cup format

Since 2003, the Peace Cup is being held every two years, the Sunmoon Peace Football Foundation invites football clubs from various nations. South Korea's Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma participates in every tournament as both the club and foundation are sponsored by the same organization, the Unification Church.

From 2003 to 2007, the Peace Cup was played between eight clubs, divided into two groups of four teams. The winner of each group qualified for the final, which was played in a single match. 2009 Peace Cup Andalucia was held in Spain, and 12 teams participated in the competition.

It was announced that the 2011 tournament is probably to be held in London, Liverpool, Manchester, and Glasgow, despite the interest from Madrid, Bilbao, and Buenos Aires. It was also confirmed that only eight teams will compete from 2011 competition.^[5]

[edit] Controversy over naming

The original name of the competition was to be Sunmoon Peace Cup, named after Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Sunmoon Peace Football Foundation. However, after being criticized that it was too religious, the organization changed its named to World Peace King Cup and started preparation for its first tournament. Before the inauguration of the cup, the Asian Football Confederation warned that the term "world" can only be used by competitions organized by FIFA, and "king" can be used by competitions held by a Kingdom.^[6]

[edit] Prize

From 2003 to 2007, the prize money of the tournament was approximately €2 million for the winning team^[7]^[8] and €500,000 for the runners-up.^[7]

[edit] Results

[edit] Summaries of previous tournaments

Year	Final^[3]
Year	Winner	Score	Runner-up
2003	PSV	1–0	Lyon
2005	Tottenham Hotspur	3–1	Lyon
2007	Lyon	1–0	Bolton Wanderers
2009	Aston Villa	0–0 (aet) (4–3 on penalties)	Juventus

[edit] Winners and finalists

Team^[3]	Titles	Runners-up
Lyon	1 (2007)	2 (2003, 2005)
Aston Villa	1 (2009)	0
PSV	1 (2003)	0
Tottenham Hotspur	1 (2005)	0
Bolton Wanderers	0	1 (2007)
Juventus	0	1 (2009)

[edit] Awards

[edit] Most Valuable Players

The Golden ball is awarded to the player on the basis of a vote taken among the media accredited to each Peace Cup tournament. There are also Silver Ball and Bronze Ball for the second and third best players repectively.^[9]

Year	Golden Ball	Silver Ball	Bronze Ball
2003	Ji-Sung Park^[10]	Lee Cattermole	Wamberto
2005	Robbie Keane	Mido	Lee Young-Pyo
2007	Karim Benzema	Jussi Jääskeläinen	Nicolas Anelka
2009	Ashley Young	Ashley Young	Ashley Young