Mildenhall Town Football Club host successful expanded youth tournament at The Riverside Stadium

The expanded 2025 Mildenhall Town Youth Football Tournament has been branded an ‘overwhelming success’.

After an absence of a number of years, the event returned to The Riverside Stadium 12 months ago with 30 teams competing.

And after some positive feedback, organisers decided to grow this year’s competition to 70 teams across numerous age groups.

Trevor Bennett, the club’s youth development officer, said: “Last year was the first time we’d hosted a youth tournament for some time and that went well. You always have a vision in your head how these things are going to run and thankfully we’ve had great feedback both years now.

“We had a lot more teams enter across the two days this year but it still ran smoothly and in that sense it was an overwhelming success.

“There’s always a worry about if things are going to go to plan, but thankfully the weather was great and we had some fantastic volunteers and sponsors that helped it to go well.”

As well as welcoming sides from numerous local clubs, it was also pleasing for Bennett to see players representing Mildenhall.

Bennett has been working to enhance the numbers within Mildenhall youth section, and the fruits of his labour are starting to come to fruition.

He added: “We’re taking small steps but we’re going in the right direction. What the likes of Lakenheath do with their youth section is fantastic and that is the blueprint.

“At younger ages we’re keen to promote fun, friendship and development, while at older ages we now have three EJA teams launching next season.”