Edgar Davids and Scott Brown launch International Champions Cup at Aviva Stadium

The Football Association of Ireland will bring Spanish club Barcelona and Scottish side Celtic to the Aviva Stadium on Saturday July 30th for a one off contest in The International Champions Cup.

The International Champions Cup is a pre-season friendly tournament that is played involving 16 club teams from around the world in four continents. 

The tournament transforms the standard of European club pre-season tours into something unique and competitive.

In attendance at the launch was former Dutch international and ex-Barcelona player Edgar Davids plus current Celtic midfielder Scott Brown.

The man making all this happen is Charlie Stillitano and his company Relevent Sports. Stillitano was the venue executive director of the 1994 Fifa World Cup held in the USA and he was quizzed on what the reason was for bringing this competition to Ireland.

"It's one of the most beautiful countries and cities in the world. The stadium since its been renovated it's just spectacular. We think it has a great fan base here in Ireland,” he commented.

Stillitano was also questioned about the potential squads and what can Irish football fans expect to see at this game.

"Celtic will be in full swing with the season starting so I think they will have their entire team here. Barcelona it's important to note they chose to stay in Europe at that time to guarantee their best team. The only players that would be missing for either team are the ones that will be playing in the Olympics, and that would really be it.”

Davids and Holland are no stranger to this part of Europe but the Dutch man failed to recall the reason why he was left out of Holland’s one goal defeat to the Irish back in 2001.

"No,” he replied when asked why he wasn’t in the team. “But we were sad we didn't make it to the World Cup, I think that's more important,” he went on to say.

He also spoke about the massive shock that was Holland not making it to this year’s competition in France.

"It's definitely a blow but also its a lesson and I think if you don't qualify at this level you have nothing to do at the championship, so maybe it’s better we are at home,” concluded Davids a UEFA Champions League winner with a Louis Van Gaal managed Ajax in 1995.

Celtic midfielder Brown was in buyout mood as he sat in front of the assembled press as he revealed his thoughts on this weekend’s possible title clinching game against Hearts.

"It's been a couple of hard results recently but the thing is we still have a league title there to win, a huge game on Saturday against Hearts and if we do it will be great.

“This will be my seventh league title and I’m still enjoying every single moment of it, and hope there will be a lot more. It's going to be five in a row, and again we will looking to get a sixth and continue from there.”

The friendly game between Barcelona and Celtic is to be held at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday July 30^th with tickets for adults priced at €45 while tickets for kids are available for €15.