Copa del Sol, the annual pre season European football tournament for club teams has received early and solid interest from the European club football community, including top teams in Russia and Ukraine, wishing to be included into the upcoming 2011 edition.

Among the squads keen to be considered are top sides CSKA Moscow, Zenit and Lokomotiv Moscow from Russia.  Ukrainian interest is also mounting and currently includes last year´s favourites Shakhtar Donetsk and its national main rival Dynamo Kiev. Supplementary high level teams from Poland and Czech Republic have also approached the Copa del Sol organizers seeking to participate in the prestigious preseason tournament. 

Strong Scandinavian presence will be conserved among the eight teams being lined up for the excitement in February 2011, and the appetite from top clubs in Sweden, Norway and Denmark continuous to be high.

“The high level interest is an honourable receipt on our inaugural year in 2010. At the same time it presents us with delicate challenge for 2011 to have several teams at this level wishing to participate” says Jonas Persson CEO at IEC in Sports and founder of Copa del Sol.”Combining teams like CSKA and Shakhtar with top Scandinavian counterparts in one format produce an interesting and  exciting event for both fans and broadcasters” continues Jonas.

Copa del Sol will maintain its successful eight team tournament formula with round robin in two groups followed by placement matches.  A total of 16 matches will be produced and offered by IEC in Sports across two weeks in February 2011.

Copa del Sol will be played in the south of Spain kicking off on Monday January 31st with the last placement matches on Friday February 11th. The event will feature 8 teams and the prize money amounts to €200.000.

IEC in Sports, part of Lagardère Sports, organize Copa del Sol in cooperation with the Norwegian event company Phoenix and Spanish company Football Impact handling clubs and logistics in the region.