The Trofeo Birra Moretti (Birra Moretti Trophy) was an annual football friendly tournament that had been organised and sponsored by Birra Moretti from 1997 to 2008. The teams played three round-robin matches lasting 45-minutes each. If any match ended in a draw, it was decided by shoot-outs or penalties (as in 2008 edition).

After 2008, the event has not taken place anymore. Officially, Heineken Italia announced its intention to suspend it for only one year in 2009, coinciding with a change of promotional strategies at the 150th anniversary of Beer Moretti S.p.A., but was not resumed even in the following years.

Formula

The tournament was played in 3 matches, each of 45 minutes (plus any recovery): the loser of the first match challenged the third team, later engaged against the winner of the opening match. In most of the editions, the matches were divided into 2 halves (from 22 min 30 s each) to give kickoff to each formation: the interval was also useful to the organizers for promotional and advertising purposes. If after 45 minutes, the match was tied, there was a shoot-out (penalty in motion) with 3 executions per team and possible continuation to the bitter end. Penalty shots. The score was thus assigned:

3 points for victory in the 45 minutes 2 points for winning on penalties 1 point for losing on penalties no points for the defeat in the 45 minutes

For tie situations in the standings, the goal difference first and the detached standings were considered first. Only the goals of the 45 minutes were counted in the goal difference.

Winners 1997: Juventus 1998: Udinese 1999: Parma 2000: Juventus 2001: Internazionale 2002: Internazionale 2003: Juventus 2004: Juventus 2005: Napoli 2006: Juventus 2007: Internazionale 2008: Juventus

Editions 2003 3 points for win, 0 points for loss 2 points for shoot-out win, 1 point for shoot-out loss Juventus F.C. wins tournament

2004 3 points for win, 0 points for loss 2 points for shoot-out win, 1 point for shoot-out loss Juventus F.C. wins tournament

2005 3 points for win, 0 points for loss 2 points for shoot-out win, 1 point for shoot-out loss S.S.C. Napoli wins tournament

2006 3 points for win, 0 points for loss 2 points for shoot-out win, 1 point for shoot-out loss Juventus F.C. wins tournament

2007 3 points for win, 0 points for loss 2 points for shoot-out win, 1 point for shoot-out loss F.C. Internazionale Milano wins tournament

2008 3 points for win, 0 points for loss 2 points for penalty kick win, 1 point for penalty kick loss Juventus F.C. wins tournament based on head-to-head result

Gunners The best mark in the event is Christian Vieri with 6 goals, all made with the Inter shirt.

Television All editions of the Birra Moretti Trophy were transmitted in clear and exclusive channels from Mediaset (sometimes Canale 5, sometimes Italia 1, in some editions the first minigirl was transmitted by Italy 1 and the other two by Channel 5).

References