Nigel Si­mon?

Tour­na­ment new­com­er, T&TEC and six-time win­ners W Con­nec­tion will be look­ing to con­tin­ue their good start to the 2011/2012 do­mes­tic sea­son when the new-look First Cit­i­zens Cup com­pe­ti­tion kicks off with a dou­ble-head­er to­day. In the first match at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo from 5 pm, the "Elec­tric­i­ty Boys" who lit up the league on Fri­day's open­ing night with a 2-1 win over Di­recTV North East Stars tack­le St Ann's Rangers in Group A. Two hours lat­er at the same venue, W Con­nec­tion, win­ners in 2001 and 2004-8 come up against Cale­do­nia AIA, a beat­en fi­nal­ist in 2001 and 2007 in a Group B en­counter.

This year a new cham­pi­on will be crowned as last year's win­ner, bmo­bile Joe Pub­lic has opt­ed out of the league this sea­son and will not de­fend its ti­tle. Last sea­son's tour­na­ment run­ner-up and 2009 win­ner, De­fence Force is al­so out of this year's tour­na­ment along with Po­lice due to their in­volve­ment in the cur­rent state of emer­gency im­posed by the T&T Gov­ern­ment since Au­gust 16. With on­ly six clubs in­volved this year's tour­na­ment will al­so take on a new for­mat. In the pre­vi­ous ten years, the tour­na­ment was con­test­ed on a straight knock­out com­pe­ti­tion, but this time the teams will com­pete in two groups of three on a round-robin ba­sis un­til Fri­day Sep­tem­ber 23 af­ter which the top two will ad­vance to crossover semi­fi­nals on Sep­tem­ber 30 fol­lowed by the fi­nal on Oc­to­ber 14. The win­ner of this year's com­pe­ti­tion will walk away with $80,000 while the run­ner-up gets $20,000.

First Cit­i­zens Cup 2011/2012:

Group A: T&TEC, St Ann's Rangers, San Juan Jabloteh

Group B: W Con­nec­tion, Cale­do­nia AIA, North East Stars

Venue: Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo

Quar­ter­fi­nal Day 1:

To­day:

T&TEC vs St Ann's Rangers, 5 pm

W Con­nec­tion vs Cale­do­nia, 7 pm

Quar­ter­fi­nal Day 2:

Tues­day Sept 20:

T&TEC vs Jabloteh,

5 pm

W Con­nec­tion vs North East Stars, 7 pm

Quar­ter­fi­nal Day 3:

Fri­day Sept 23:

St Ann's Rangers vs Jabloteh, 5 pm

Cale­do­nia vs North East Stars, 7 pm

Semi­fi­nals:

Fri­day Sept 30

A 1 vs B 2

A 2 vs B 1

Fi­nal: Oc­to­ber 14