T&T Premier Football League (TTPFL) Tier I duo Athletic Club Port-of-Spain and Miscellaneous Police FC were drawn in two tricky six-team pools for the eighth Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Club Shield competition.
The 24-team tournament to be contested via four round-robin groups will take place in T&T from July 26 to August 3.
T&T Premier Football League Tier I winners in 2023 and fourth in the just-concluded season, AC POS will contest Group D alongside reigning club shield champions Arnett Gardens of Jamaica and Martinique’s Club Franciscain.
Cayman Islands’ Scholars International SC, Dominica’s Dublanc FC and Anguilla’s Doc’s United.
Third-placed finishers in the T&TPFL Tier I 2024/2025 season, Miscellaneous Police FC, the 1991 Concacaf Champions Cup finalist, have been drawn in Group C with Suriname’s SV Transvaal, Antigua’s All Saints United, Barbadians Weymouth Wales, Sint Maarten’s SCSA Eagles, and the British Virgin Islands’ Wolues FC.
Last year, AC PoS, a team coached by Walt Noreiga, and Police represented T&T in the Concacaf Caribbean Cup, and both will have a chance to do so once more, as at the end of the 16-team CFU Club Shield competition, the top two finishers will qualify for the 2025 Concacaf Caribbean Cup, which will be contested from August to December.
So far, T&T Premier League champions Defence Force, who lifted the Caribbean Concacaf Club title back in 2001, will contest Group B with last year’s tournament runner-up, Dominican Republic’s Cibao FC; Jamaica Wray & Nephew Premier League two-time reigning champion Cavalier FC, who are also the two-time Concacaf Caribbean Cup winners; Haitian champions Juventus de Cayes; and the CFU Club Shield runner-up.
For Defence Force, which captured its record 24th T&T national league title earlier this month, it marks a return to the Caribbean Cup competition for the first time since 2023, after they contested the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Club Shield competition last year, a qualifier to the Caribbean Cup, but bowed out at the round-of-16 hurdle.
In Group A, two-time Caribbean Football Union Club champions Central FC (2015 & 2016), who last competed at the Concacaf level in 2018 but qualified as the runner-up of the 2024/2025 T&T Premier Football League Tier I competition, were drawn in Group A alongside Jamaica Wray & Nephew Premier League runner-up Mount Pleasant Football Academy, Suriname’s SV Robinhood, the Dominican Republic’s O&M FC and the eventual CFU Club Shield champion, while in Group B,
In the CFU Club Shield, matches will be played via a Swiss-style format which will see each team playing two matches apiece.
The group matches will be contested from July 26 to 29, with only the four group winners advancing to the next stage, with the semifinals set for August 1 and the final and third-place playoff scheduled for August 3.
Last August, Arnett Gardens got a 1-0 win over Antigua’s Grenades FC to clinch the CFU Club Shield crown.
Suriname’s SV Robinhood has won the most CFU Club Shield titles, two, in 2019 and 2023, beating Martinique’s Club Franciscain (1-0) and Golden Lion (5-1) in the title matches, respectively.
Club Sando had the best final of a T&T PFL Tier I club, a third-place finish in 2023 after spanking Puerto Rico’s Metropolitan 6-1 in their playoff.
2025 CFU Club Shield groups
Group A: AC Capoise, Academia Quintana, Academy Eagles, La Clery Football, Rovers SC, SV Real Rincon.
Group B: AS Etoile De Matoury, Guyana Defence Force, Moca FC, Paradise FC International, St Paul’s United Strikers, SV Britannia.
Group C: All Saints United, Miscellaneous Police FC, SCSA Eagles, SV Transvaal, Weymouth Wales, Wolues FC.
Group D: AC Port of Spain, Arnett Gardens, Club Franiscain, Docs United, Dublanc FC, Scholars International SC.