TIM Trophy
| Founded | 2001 |
|---|---|
| Region | Italy |
| Number of teams | 3 |
| Current champions | Celta Vigo (1st title) |
| Most successful club(s) | Internazionale (8 titles) |
The TIM Trophy is an annual football pre-season tournament played by three Italian football teams. For the first 12 editions, the competing teams were Juventus, Internazionale and Milan. For both the 2013 and 2014 editions, Inter opted not to participate. For 2015, Juventus declined to participate while Inter returned. Since 2013, Sassuolo has been the third team to participate. In the 2016 edition, Celta Vigo became the first non-Italian team to compete in the tournament. The TIM Trophy is an unofficial tournament that has been held yearly in August since 2001. It is not sanctioned or recognized by official football bodies since the gameplay rules do not correspond to IFAB/FIFA laws of football.
The teams play three round-robin 45-minute matches. If any match ends in a draw, it is decided by a penalty shoot-out. Three points are awarded for a victory during regular play, with zero points awarded to the loser. If the match is decided by penalties, the winner is awarded two points and the loser one point. The organizers decide which two teams are to play in the first match of the evening. The third team will then play the losing team from the first match, and will end the tournament by playing the first-match winner.
The 15th edition of the tournament in 2015 was won by Milan for a second successive year, by tying the score in added time in the third and deciding game against Sassuolo, and then winning on penalties. Overall, Inter has eight wins, Milan five and both Juventus and Sassuolo one each.
In Italy, the TIM Trophy is often considered "unlucky" by fans. This is because only twice has the winner of the TIM Trophy won the Serie A title that season. In both cases, the team which achieved the double victory has been Inter.
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