With the four quarter final matches due to be played in February, the four winners will find themselves two games from taking over the mantle of England’s representatives in the 2006/2007 UEFA Regions Cup. Whoever qualifies will have a difficult act to follow.

The NLS Cup, in partnership with CarlsbergThe winners of the inaugural National League System Cup, the Mid Cheshire League, went very close to qualifying for last Summers Finals in Poland.

They narrowly missing out to the Republic of Ireland’s National Amateur International side in their Intermediary Group 3 mini tournament played in Bosnia Herzegovina.

Prior to this the side had won their Preliminary Group in Slovenia. Although a Regional Competition, UEFA permit smaller Member Associations to enter their National Amateur squads.

The Mid Cheshire league faced four such sides in their qualifying campaign.

Victories over Malta and San Marino were accompanied by a draw with Northern Ireland and a 4-2 defeat to the Republic of Ireland, a tremendous achievement for a Step 7 League.

When the closing date passed for entries into the next competition, 37 National Associations had committed themselves, these being:

Entrants

Azerbaijan

Lithuania

Finland

Russia

Belarus

Malta

France

San Marino

Belgium

Moldova

Georgia

Scotland

Bosnia Herzegovina

Netherlands

Germany

Serbia & Montenegro

Bulgaria

Northern Ireland

Greece

Slovakia

Croatia

Poland

Hungary

Slovenia

Czech Republic

Portugal

Italy

Spain

England

Republic of Ireland

Latvia

Sweden

Estonia

Romania

Liechtenstein

Switzerland

Ukraine


With 37 entries it would appear that the format will be similar to the 2004/2005 competition with two Preliminary Groups of 4 with the two group winners and the best runner-up joining the remaining 29 Nations for the Intermediary Round of 8 groups of 4, thus providing 8 teams for the Final Round.

The draw for the Preliminary and Intermediary Rounds is scheduled to take place at UEFA’s Amateur and Youth Committee meeting in March 2006.