Olympiakos and PSG have also joined.

I think the tournament is a very good idea, I went to three games last season and I watched Celtic play Barcelona, Marseille and Manchester City. The pricing was excellent and the football was good, it also allows you to see players who may be up and coming world stars.

There are already seven clubs competing from Britain. However, United's absence is a surprise. Although, clubs such as Real Madrid and Bayern Munich were not in last season's tournament. Since there is no way of qualifying, except by invitation, either these clubs weren't invited or decided to decline.

By last season, I mean earlier this season.

did united give any reason why we didn't get involved?

could it be to do with tv rights for reserve games I.e. Mutv and things?

No, can't see any reasons announced by the club at all.

Cheers Henrik re PSG etc. I spotted those two as well in another newspaper article.

We need to be in this tournament! It's the perfect opportunity to scout out young players who we might want to pick up.

I wonder if it is financial though aquantumof. We can't see how much the clubs get paid to compete if at all, and perhaps that's the sticking point given the kudos United bring, not to mention for TV rights etc

Well, hopefully you will do better than City. They were shocking, never got one point. I thought they had a decent youth team, too.

I don't think the games were broadcast until the semi-finals, they were on ESPN.

http://www.nextgenseries.com/Watching-NextGen

So unless you got to the semi-final, I don't see where TV rights would come into play.

Park Ji - I can see why the natural reaction is to be in it, but maybe we dont want United youngsters ripping it up in Europe while they can still get targeted on their youth contracts as you're suggesting we do for the other teams players. I can see how a competition like this may lead to clubs having to pay young kids a lot more money.

It's also really hard to tell if it's a good idea without knowing more about what the financials are for the club etc

Ah that's good to know Henrik, although I've read clubs sign a multiple year contract to join e.g. Chelsea have signed up for 3 years, and who knows whether things like TV coverage will change. Maybe it's just not popular enough at the moment for TV rights, but if clubs like United, AC Milan and Real Madrid get involved that may change.

Didnt fergie say that he liked the idea but felt it would not last as a tournement

It's a shame we're not entering it I think. Although it won't be the Champions League experience the tournament creator thinks it will be, it will be valuable game time at the very least.

Given that the clubs stance on contracts for the younger players seems to be to leave it until last 12 months before offering erms,maybe SAF is worried about putting more of his talented youngsters into what is going to turn into an auction for the best youngsters around.

I have to say I'm surprised by the clubs decision on this because it's a great opportunity for our reserve and academy players to get used to playing other teams from around Europe and get used to playing against teams with different styles of play.

I guess it's likely that we'll be involved in the Dallas Cup and Aegon Future Cup again or similar tournaments.

It'll be interesting to here from someone at United why the club decided not to participate.