On Easter Sunday 1985 the very first International Cor Groenewegen Tournament was kicked off on the pitch of Uitgeest football club. International because participants from Luxemburg and Germany were present. The first winners were TIJBB from Haarlem. The tournament and the party afterwards were a tremendous success. We decided to invite more foreign teams and to stage the tournament during the Whitsun weekend.

In 1986 ICGT had its first foreign winner: Danish Kastrup Boldsklup who beat Uitgeest Football Club, the organising side, in a tantalizing final.
In 1986 and 1987 the party nights proved so successful that we decided to put up a giant tent.

Moreover, the international youth tournament was accompanied by a combined senior men’s and women’s tournament, the Arie Bonkenburg Sr Tournament. For this year’s edition we have organised a number of special activities in honour of ABT’s twentieth anniversary.
In 1990 we welcomed a very special participant: the national youth team of the German Democratic Republic. A unique occasion because the GDR was actually disintegrating after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. That year the tournament hosted a very strong set of teams but was nevertheless won by the VVU youth team. An achievement that has never been equalled to this date.
In 1991 the organizing committee pulled another stunt. A team from the former Soviet Union, Trudovyye Rezervy, was contracted. The team established its reputation by promptly winning the 1991 edition.
The Russians took part two more times. Many of us still cherish the memories of delapidated coaches, boxes of illegally imported vodka and the piles of bread rolls that were loaded on to the coaches after they had been repaired and the long journey back could begin.

In the second half of the nineties the tournament rose to an ever higher level. Famous clubs like Charlton Athletic, Sunderland and Wolverhampton Wanderers found their way to Uitgeest. But also IFK Göteborg from Sweden, Arminia Bielefeld from Germany and Spartak Trnava from the Czech Republic were among the participants in those days.
In 2002 ‘master team contractor’ Henk Kempers had another surprise in store. This time he managed to enlist the African Burkina Fasso youth team. This side immediately became tournament winner by beating Volendam in the final.

In 2003, besides presenter Andy Houtkamp, Ajax player Rafael van der Vaart was a guest at the first ever drawing of the lots ceremony. In the years following it has become a tradition to have this ceremony performed by famous soccer players or coaches. An absolute climax was undoubtedly the preparation of the 2005 jubilee edition when Foppe de Haan gave an unforgettable lecture

In the last few years the quality of the participating teams has been high constantly and the 2008 edition will certainly top this. For the teams participating press ‘home’
The ICGT organizers are doing their utmost to maintain this level if possible and to aim even higher in the near future (perhaps at the 25th edition?)

© Translation Jan Hormann 2008