Kevin Sunich

Hav­ing va­cat­ed its Dig­i­cel Pro League and Big Six ti­tles, Cli­co San Juan Jabloteh will be aim­ing to de­fend its Toy­ota Clas­sic crown when the com­pe­ti­tion kicks off to­mor­row. The tour­na­ment in its fourth year was launched at Toy­ota T&T Ltd, Barataria yes­ter­day. The San Juan Kings who de­feat­ed St Ann's Rangers 2-1 in the fi­nal last year will start their de­fence against De­fence Force Su­per League out­fit in the round-of-16. The tour­na­ment with spon­sor­ship to the tune of $50,000 fea­tures ten Pro League clubs and six Su­per League teams com­pet­ing for a first prize of $25,000, while the run­ners-up will re­ceive TT$10,000.

When the draw was done yes­ter­day, there were two all-Pro League clash­es with W Con­nec­tion meet­ing Cale­do­nia AIA, which has been knocked out at the se­mi-fi­nal stage for the last three years while Rangers come up against FC South End. Re­cent­ly crowned Pro League and Big Six champs bmo­bile Joe Pub­lic, which won the Toy­ota ti­tle in 2007, will take on Po­lice as it seeks a third ti­tle this sea­son. In his ad­dress, Dex­ter Skeene, chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of the Pro League said this tour­na­ment has al­ways been a crit­i­cal part of the Pro League cal­en­dar.

"In ad­di­tion to be­ing a unique tour­na­ment which en­com­pass­es the Su­per League clubs, it pro­vides a gauge as to the de­vel­op­ment of the clubs. "It al­so of­fers the op­por­tu­ni­ty for syn­er­gies and de­vel­op­ment of the work­ing re­la­tion­ship be­tween the league and the T&TFoot­ball Fed­er­a­tion (T&TFF)," Skeene said. He said Toy­ota had sup­port­ed the vi­sion of the league and had even gone be­yond just the dol­lars. As­sis­tant Sales Man­ag­er Don­na Pe­tit-Walk­er said Toy­ota be­lieved that sport had a very im­por­tant role to play in the de­vel­op­ment of T&T. "It has al­ways been our be­lief that if we can al­low the su­per league teams to com­pete with the Pro League out­fits, it can on­ly in the long run ben­e­fit T&T foot­ball," said Pe­tit Walk­er.

The tour­na­ment kicks off to­mor­row with six match­es while a dou­ble-head­er is al­so sched­uled for Sat­ur­day. Full fix­tures will be made avail­able to­day.

Fix­tures

Group A:

St Ann's Rangers vs South End FC

Econ­o­my Strik­ers (Su­per League) vs Unit­ed Petrotrin

Group B:

San Juan Jabloteh vs De­fence Force (Su­per League)

Phoenix (Su­per League) vs Har­vard (Su­per League)

Group C:

De­fence Force vs T&TEC (Su­per League)

W Con­nec­tion vs Cale­do­nia

Group D:

Joe Pub­lic (Su­per League) vs Ma Pau

Joe Pub­lic vs Po­lice