Nigel Si­mon

Dig­i­cel T&T Pro League cham­pi­on, De­fence Force and Po­lice, both of which falls un­der the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty will be­gin their 2011-12 Dig­i­cel Pro League cam­paign this week -three months in­to the sea­son.This was re­vealed af­ter a three-month long State of Emer­gency was lift­ed on Mon­day De­cem­ber 5 by the Gov­ern­ment of T&T.The State of Emer­gency was im­ple­ment­ed in Au­gust with the in­ten­tion of curb­ing the spi­ral­ing crime sit­u­a­tion in T&T.With the State Of Emer­gency in ef­fect, all sport with­in se­cu­ri­ty ser­vices were tem­porar­i­ly sus­pend­ed and per­son­nel called in­to full du­ty.Po­lice FC will now be­gin its cam­paign to­day against fifth placed St Ann's Rangers from 6pm at the Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mare­bal­la.On the oth­er­hand, De­fence Force starts its ti­tle de­fence on Fri­day against Cale­do­nia AIA at the Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar.

With re­gards to his team com­menc­ing its sea­son to­day, Po­lice coach Kelvin Jones ad­mit­ted his team has a lot of work to do to play catch-up; how­ev­er he is very con­fi­dent of a good open­ing re­sult against Rangers.He said, "We are play­ing against Rangers. We al­ways had good scores against so we are look­ing for an­oth­er good re­sult and a good start.What we had be­fore the State of Emer­gency is lost and we on­ly had the last two weeks to pre­pare with a cou­ple prac­tice match­es.

We still have a lot of work to do. The team is on­ly 65 per­cent fit but we are con­fi­dent of catch­ing up.Dur­ing the De­cem­ber trans­fer win­dow, Po­lice FC has ac­quired the ser­vices of for­mer Joe Pub­lic and Rangers mid­field­er Ka­reem Young, 30, and for­mer North East Stars de­fend­er Er­rol Charles, 29 and are in the process of sign­ing W Con­nec­tion play­er Wes­ley John.In oth­er match­es to­day, W Con­nec­tion fresh off its 4-3 penal­ty-kicks win over T&TEC in the Toy­ota Clas­sic Cup fi­nal on Fri­day come up against Cale­do­nia AIA, beat­en by T&TEC 2-0 last week at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va while Adams' Con­struc­tion San Juan Jabloteh tack­les Rangers, com­ing off a 1-0 loss to Stars at Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar, both from 6pm.At Cou­va, Cale­do­nia is ex­pect­ed to fea­ture its two new sign­ings in for­mer De­fence Force ace for­ward 28-year-old De­vorn Jorsling, snapped up af­ter a stint with Amer­i­can USL side Or­lan­do City FC and for­mer Jabloteh mid­field­er, Ataulla Guer­ra.

To­day's Dig­i­cel T&T Pro League match­es

W Con­nec­tion vs Cale­do­nia AIA, Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va, 6pm

Po­lice vs Rangers, Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la, 6pm

Stars vs Jabloteh, Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar, 6pm