FC United will look to defend the Fenix Trophy on the shores of Lake Iseo as the Final 4 heads back to Italy in May!
Fenix Trophy Final 4 2025
Semi-finals: 10th May
Final/ 3rd place play-off: 11th May
Stadio Comunale G. De Rossi in Iseo
The culmination of this season’s Fenix Trophy will again be held on the shores of an Italian lake as we move to the new location of Iseo, a town on the beautiful lake of the same name, the 4th largest lake in Italy.
The Teams:
A draw will take place shortly for the semi-finals which will take place in the afternoon of Saturday 10th May. Joining FC United will be:
- Avro FC: our near neighbours, currently 7th in the NPL West just 6 points off the play-offs. We have played only once before, a pre-season friendly at the Vestacare Stadium on 14th July 2017, with a 2nd half Craig Lindfield brace eventually giving us a 2-1 win after Avro had taken the lead in what the match report described as ‘a tough and sometimes physical test’.
- Caledonian Braves, currently 3rd in the Scottish Lowland league. We have yet to face Scottish opposition.
And either:
- Berchem Sport, currently 13th in the Belgian Second Amateur Division who have played their Fenix home matches in front of crowds of 1,500 and are likely to bring significant numbers of fans over should they qualify
- Boldklubben Skjold, currently 4th in the Denmark Series and the only other previous winners of this trophy having beaten us 3-2 in the 2023 semi-final at the Arena Civica before they went on to beat Prague Raptors in the San Siro Final.
Berchem take a narrow 1-0 advantage to Copenhagen for the 2nd leg on April 9th.
The two semi-final winners will compete for the Fenix Trophy on Sunday 11th May with the losers consoling themselves with the 3rd place play-off on the same day.
Kick off times are TBC but on both days games are expected to take place in the afternoon and early evening.
Ticket News:
You can purchase match tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.it/e/fenix-trophy-final-4-iseo-2025-tickets-1314858911399?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl
Location, stadium and accommodation:
The Final 4 will be held at the Stadio Comunale G. De Rossi, home ground of Orsa Iseo 1946 and located within a gentle 15 minute walk of both the lake and the main town centre in Iseo.
According to Wikipedia, Iseo has lush green mountains surrounding the crystal clear lake and has a medieval town centre where you can find the first monument ever built of Giuseppe Garibaldi, erected in 1883 (which is no mean feat considering these days no Italian town or even village is complete without a Garibaldi memorial of sorts).
There are a small number of hotels and a greater number of apartments which can be booked through booking.com but lessons learnt from last year is that whilst there is good public transport during the day, this is often not the case in the lakes region at night and those staying further afield in Garda last year struggled to find taxis late night- so staying within walking distance of the town is advisable. The 4 teams will be staying at the Camping Del Sole village which is located right by the lake and the main Iseo beach and within 15 minutes’ walk of the stadium and the town centre. You can get 5% off your reservation by using the code: FENIXTROPHY5. It has a pool and don’t be fooled by the name - although you can indeed pitch your tent there, it also boasts glamping tents, chalets, apartments and mobile homes, all at affordable prices. It can also be found on booking.com or direct at https://www.campingdelsole.it/
Travel:
Bergamo is the best airport to head to as it is only 30km from Iseo. Luckily for us it serves as a main Milan hub for Ryanair with flights from Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Stansted and Newcastle.
The other 2 Milan airports of Linate and Malpensa are further afield but also enjoy regular Ryanair and EasyJet flights from the UK. You can also connect via Brescia with airports such as Venice in around 3 hours.
The team will fly out from Liverpool to Bergamo on Friday evening returning on Monday evening.