A new cham­pi­on will be crowned in the 2011 edi­tion of the Toy­ota Clas­sic when 14 teams, six of which com­prise the Dig­i­cel T&T Pro League and eight from the bmo­bile Na­tion­al Su­per League (NSL), vie for the $45,000 cham­pi­onship prize and the los­er will pock­et $15,000. The pre­lim­i­nary round kicks-off on Tues­day.

The draw and the $60,000 spon­sor­ship cheque were pre­sent­ed at the launch at the Toy­ota Cor­po­rate Box, Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, yes­ter­day. The (Trinidad and To­ba­go) Clas­sic has been spon­sored by Toy­ota for sev­en years. Joe Pub­lic won the event on two oc­ca­sions (2007, 2009), W Con­nec­tion (2005), Unit­ed Petrotrin (2006) San Juan Jabloteh (2008) and Ma Pau (2010) are the oth­er win­ners of the tour­na­ment. Reign­ing cham­pi­ons Ma Pau are not par­tic­i­pat­ing in the league this year which makes to road clear for a new cham­pi­on to be crowned.

As an­nounced, the top two clubs from on Round One- Match Day Six in the Pro League stand­ings-T&TEC and W Con­nec­tion will ad­vance on a bye from the pre­lim­i­nary round in­to the semi­fi­nal round. The pre­lim­i­nary round will be­gin with three dou­ble-head­ers at three venues. NSL league and knock-out win­ners-Joe Pub­lic will clash with 1976 FC Phoenix at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in the first match at 5 pm, fol­lowed by San Juan Jabloteh ver­sus Re­al Mara­cas at 7 pm. At the Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, St Ann's Rangers takes on Ea­gles at 6 pm, be­fore Cale­do­nia AIA takes on Club San­do. WASA and Stoke­ly Vale will take to the Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Ari­ma for the open­er at 5pm, while North East Stars' play West Side Su­per Starzs at 7 pm. Pro League CEO Dex­ter Skeene urged that the play­ers of both the Pro League and the NSL make the most of the op­por­tu­ni­ty, as T&T foot­ball has been at its low­est in re­cent times.

"This has been a chal­leng­ing year to say the least for the T&T Pro League and T&T foot­ball on the whole, but all that has hap­pened is that our re­solve has been strength­ened," said Skeene to the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Pro League and Su­per League clubs. "Trinidad and To­ba­go's foot­ball will rise like a phoenix from the ash­es," said Skeene, in an at­tempt to re­as­sure lo­cal foot­ball fans that the sport will re­turn to it's best with­in time for the fol­low­ing World Cup in 2018. He said: "The cur­rent sit­u­a­tion fac­ing T&T foot­ball in gen­er­al af­fords us the op­por­tu­ni­ty to cre­ate the fu­ture. How we move for­ward, how we learn and how we im­prove is much more im­por­tant than wal­low­ing in self pity, lack of con­fi­dence and de­spair." Mar­ket­ing Of­fi­cer Toy­ota Trinidad and To­ba­go Lim­it­ed-Sean Shaffie urged that cor­po­rate T&T comes on board, like Toy­ota, pledg­ing to sup­port lo­cal foot­ball in its de­vel­op­ment.

The con­fer­ence con­clud­ed with Shaffie hand­ing over the spon­sor­ship cheque val­ued at $60,000 to Skeene.

Par­tic­i­pat­ing clubs in­cludes: T&TEC FC, W Con­nec­tion, Adam's Con­struc­tion San Juan Jabloteh, North East Stars, St Ann's Rangers, Cale­do­nia AIA, Joe Pub­lic FC, Stoke­ly Vale, WASA FC, 1976 FC Phoenix, Club San­do, Ea­gles Unit­ed, West Side Su­per Starzs and Re­al Mara­cas. Spec­ta­tors will pay $30 for en­trance to all match­es, ex­cept for the fi­nal on De­cem­ber 9 at the Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, which will cost $40 for at­ten­dance.

SCHED­ULE

PRE­LIM­I­NARY ROUND

Tues­day 22:

Joe Pub­lic v Phoenix, Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um-5 pm

San Juan Jabloteh v Re­al Mara­cas, Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um-7 pm

St Ann's Rangers v Ea­gles, Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um-6 pm

Cale­do­nia AIA v Club San­do, Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um-8 pm

WASA v Stoke­ly Vale, Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um-5 pm

N E Stars v West Side, Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um-7pm