SINGAPORE - The International Champions Cup (ICC) will return to Singapore in three months' time and English Premier League side Arsenal, French powerhouses Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Spanish giants Atletico Madrid have confirmed their participation in this year's pre-season football tournament.

The fixtures were announced in a press conference on Tuesday evening (April 17) at Marina Bay Sands' ArtScience Museum, with Atletico playing Arsenal in the opening match on July 26, Arsenal versus PSG on July 28 and PSG versus Atletico on July 30.

The three matches will take place at the National Stadium.

The clubs' former players Robert Pires (Arsenal), Jose Luis Caminero (Atletico) and Maxwell (PSG) were also present at the press conference.

Pires, who was part of the Gunners' "Invincibles" team that finished the 2004 English Premier League season unbeaten, believes the players will be professional and dish out good football at Kallang.

He said: "This is a tournament and, at the end of the competition, there is a trophy. It may be a friendly competition but, when you are on the field, you don't have any friends. You want to win and, of course, win the trophy.

"It's very important to start the season well. For Arsenal, it will be great to play against Paris Saint-Germain, the best team in France, and Atletico Madrid, one of the best teams in Spain in the last four or five years."

The ICC is a pre-season tournament played in cities in Asia and the United States featuring top European clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Manchester United.

Singapore will be the only Asian stop for the tournament this year.

Last year, German Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich, English Premier League champions Chelsea and Italian Serie A side Inter Milan were the first teams to compete in the Singapore leg of the ICC.

Inter were the winners of the Singapore leg after they defeated Chelsea 2-1 and Bayern 2-0.