"Sela Cup" rumoured to round off NUFC's pre-season schedule

You might have been wondering about NUFC's plans for the final weekend of pre-season.

Friendly games away to Gateshead on Saturday, the 15th of July, and Rangers on Tuesday, the 18th of July, are already sold out.

The lads will also compete in the Premier League's first-ever "US Summer Series" at the end of July. We'll play Aston Villa in Philadelphia on Sunday the 23rd, Chelsea in Atlanta on Wednesday the 26th, and Brighton & Hove Albion in New Jersey on Friday the 28th.

There's currently nothing on the calendar for either Saturday, the 5th of August, or Sunday, the 6th of August, though.

Last year the club held a double-header with Atalanta and Athletic Bilbao the weekend before our Premier League campaign kicked off at home to Nottingham Forest.

And NUFC News can now reveal that similar plans appear to be in place for this summer.

The inaugural "Sela Cup" looks set to take place at St. James' Park the weekend before we welcome Aston Villa for our season's first game.

Fiorentina of Serie A, Nice of Ligue 1, and Villarreal of La Liga will be the other participants. An official announcement is expected from the club later in the week.

Here are the rumoured fixtures, kick-off times TBC:

Sela Cup Schedule

Saturday, 5th August

Newcastle vs. Fiorentina

Nice vs. Villarreal

Sunday, 6th August

Fiorentina vs. Nice

Newcastle vs. Villarreal

This marks the first branded activation between NUFC and Sela since the latter was announced as the new front-of-shirt partner three weeks ago. The partnership was already known to include provisions related to the design and operation of a new fan zone area at St. James' Park, but a pre-season tournament hasn't been mooted before now.