Manchester City, Tottenham and Sunderland all sign up to 2013 Barclays Asia Trophy

Jan 17, 2013 4:50:00 PM

Roberto Mancini's Premier League champions and Spurs - who won the tournament in 2009 - will travel to Hong Kong along with the Black Cats for the biennial competition

Manchester City, Tottenham and Sunderland have all confirmed that they will be taking part in the 2013 Barclays Asia Trophy in Hong Kong July.

The pre-season tournament, which takes place every two years, was won by Chelsea in 2011 and will this year see hosts South China FC test their mettle against three of the English top-flight's best clubs.

This year's competition marks 10 years since its inception and Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini is delighted to be taking his side back to Asia after touring the continent in 2012.

He declared: "It gives us the opportunity to showcase the club's footballing talent to our supporters in Hong Kong, which is such a vibrant venue to host a high-quality tournament like this."


MANCHESTER CITY LATEST
13/8	Jose Mourinho is 13/8 with PaddyPower to be the next manager of Manchester City

Sunderland manager Martin O'Neill added that there was no question of turning down the invitation to take part for the first time.

"The stature and prestige of the event is such that, when invited, we readily accepted," he enthused. "Hong Kong's reputation as a brilliant venue is also growing tall and we are looking forward to competing against such very strong opposition on our Barclays Asia Trophy debut."

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore expressed his delight at staging the tournament in Hong Kong for a third time, after previous outings in 2007 and 2011, and is confident that the three clubs involved will prove a perfect advertisement for English football in Asia.

"They are clubs of outstanding pedigree and history who represent the best of the Premier League; they have some of the world's best footballers, they are winners and they also have many fans in Hong Kong that they are looking forward to entertaining," Scudamore noted.

"The 2011 tournament was without doubt our most successful to date and the atmosphere inside the Hong Kong Stadium on both nights was particularly memorable."

Inside Goal.Com

Player Ratings: Dortmund 1-2 Bayern
Goal.com rates the players on show as die Roten edge out their Bundesliga rivals to complete the double after a closely contested Champions League final at Wembley
Bayern v Dortmund: A tale of two Ghanaians

Ahead of tonight’s Champions League final, Goal goes down memory lane and assesses the role of Ghana’s Kuffour and Tanko in the two clubs’ campaign years ago
Robben is finally Bayern's braveheart
The winger was the driving force behind the German outfit's triumph after years of playing second fiddle in the final
Re-defined for the worst: RTU's really terrible tale

RTU's performances in the current Ghana Premier League season have indeed been nothing to write home about going 27 games without a win, and rooted at the bottom of the standings
Pep has a lot to live up to after Bayern win
The Catalan coach was appointed in January with a view to getting the best out of the Bavarians' golden generation. But just four months on, they are already European champions