Tottenham, Juventus to play in July International Champions Cup in Melbourne

Tottenham Hotspur and Juventus are the headliner clubs that will participate in a preseason International Champions Cup to be held in Melbourne, Australia this summer, according to Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper. The Melbourne Herald Sun article is behind a paywall, but Fox Sports Australia has confirmed Juventus and Tottenham as tournament headliners, and also confirmed that Australian A-League club Melbourne Victory will also participate. A fourth club has not been announced and is set to be finalized by February 2016.

While exact dates for all matches are not yet confirmed, Melbourne Victory will open the tournament by facing Juventus on July 23, with Spurs playing the yet-unnamed fourth club at a date to be announced later. The release was clear that both Juventus and Spurs will be bringing "full strength" sides to Australia that will include players who will feature in Euro 2016 (say hello, Harry Kane and Paul Pogba).

Wikipedia tells me that the International Champions Cup is an annual exhibition tournament that started in 2013 and has been held in various locations. In 2013 and 2014, the entire tournament was held in the USA. Starting in 2015, the tournament was held USA, Australia, and China with weird scheduling rules that resulted in three champions: Real Madrid (ICC Australia), PSG (ICC North America), and Real Madrid again (ICC China). This year, there will be an Australian tournament, presented by Audi, and a North American tournament, presented by Guinness. The two tournament champions will not play each other.

This will be the second consecutive offseason in which Spurs has played an exhibition match in Australia. Last summer, Spurs traveled to Sydney to take on Sydney FC in a post-season exhibition tour that also included a stop in Malaysia. This could be a quick trip like last summer, or it could be part of a larger tour. We probably won't know that for a while, but Aussie Spurs fans can circle the week of July 23 on their calendars.