Celtic and Chelsea set to star in New York tournament

CHELSEA and Celtic are in talks to appear in a four-team tournament in New York next summer.

Both the English and Scottish champions have been regular visitors to the US in previous close seasons and promoters of the new World Series programme of tournaments are believed to be in talks with both clubs about a return next summer for a four-team event alongside another major European club.

Each team would play twice in three days in a mini-league format at Giants Stadium.

Celtic chairman Peter Lawwell confirmed his club were in talks about a return to New York. &

Organisers IEP has been running the successful Amsterdam tournament and wants to integrate it with similar mini-competitions, all run on the same format, around the globe.

They launched an event last summer in Shanghai which featured Manchester City. IEP chief executive David Broomhall was in Dubai on Tuesday to launch another there which features German clubs Stuttgart and Hamburg against the national teams of the United Arab Emirates and Iran.

Celtic played Mexican club Chivas of Guadalajara at Giants Stadium last July as part of a three-match tour that also took in Washington DC and Boston and Lawwell, also in Dubai for the Soccerex football industry conference said: “We’ve got a prospect of going back in July and New York is a possibility.

“There are two or three things we’re working on and it’s just a question of bringing it all together.”

Broomhall said he was not prepared to name clubs until every detail was finalised and did not expect a formal announcement until the new year but insiders confirmed that Chelsea and Celtic were top of the list.