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Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Central FC away, D Force at home for CCC openers

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27 days ago
20250618
FILE - T&T Defence Force Kaihim Thomas, right, and Kevin Molino celebrate with the rest of their teammates after winning the TTPFL Tier 1 League at the Police Barracks in St James on May 4. Defence Force won 1-0. (Photo by Daniel Prentice)

FILE - T&T Defence Force Kaihim Thomas, right, and Kevin Molino celebrate with the rest of their teammates after winning the TTPFL Tier 1 League at the Police Barracks in St James on May 4. Defence Force won 1-0. (Photo by Daniel Prentice)

DANIEL PRENTICE

T&T clubs De­fence Force Elite and Cen­tral FC will kicked off their re­spec­tive cam­paigns in the ten-team Con­ca­caf Caribbean Cup (CCC) with con­trast­ing home and away en­coun­ters in Week One in Au­gust.

The third edi­tion of this re­gion­al cup tour­na­ment, which serves as a qual­i­fi­er for the 2026 Con­ca­caf Cham­pi­ons Cup, will take place from Au­gust to De­cem­ber 2025.

T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League (TTPFL) cham­pi­ons De­fence Force, who lift­ed the Caribbean Con­ca­caf Club ti­tle back in 2001, will open their Group B cam­paign at home to Hait­ian cham­pi­ons Ju­ven­tus de Cayes on Au­gust 21 at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo from 8 pm in Week One be­fore re­turn­ing to ac­tion in Week Three away to Ja­maica Wray & Nephew Pre­mier League two-time reign­ing cham­pi­on Cav­a­lier FC, who are al­so the two-time Con­ca­caf Caribbean Cup win­ners on Sep­tem­ber 17 at Sabi­na Park, Kingston, Ja­maica, from 7 pm.

The Den­sill Theobald-coached De­fence Force, which cap­tured a record 24th T&T na­tion­al league ti­tle last month with­out los­ing a match, will then host the Caribbean Foot­ball Union (CFU) Club Shield run­ner-up on Sep­tem­ber 25 at the Mu­cu­rapo venue be­fore jour­ney­ing to the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic for a clash with last year’s tour­na­ment run­ner-up, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic’s Cibao FC at the Es­ta­dio Cibao FC, San­ti­a­go de los Ca­balleros.

This sea­son, De­fence Force will be mak­ing a a re­turn to the Caribbean Cup com­pe­ti­tion for the first time since 2023, af­ter they con­test­ed the CFU Club Shield com­pe­ti­tion last year, a qual­i­fi­er to the Caribbean Cup, but bowed out at the round-of-16 hur­dle.

How­ev­er, in Group A, two-time CFU 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 TTPFL Tier I com­pe­ti­tion will have a tougher start to their tour­na­ment as they play their first two match­es on the road be­fore end­ing with two match­es at home.

The Ran­dolph Boyce-coached Cen­tral FC will be first of T&T clubs in ac­tion in the com­pe­ti­tion when they trav­el to Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic to play O&M FC at Es­ta­dio Cibao FC, San­ti­a­go de los Ca­balleros on Au­gust 20 fol­lowed six days lat­er by an­oth­er away clash, this time at Suri­name’s SV Robin­hoo­dat the Frank Essed Sta­dion in Para­mari­bo.

Cen­tral FC then close out their tour­na­ment with home clash­es at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um against the CFU Club Shield cham­pi­on on Sep­tem­ber 16, and then Ja­maica Wray & Nephew Pre­mier League run­ner-up Mount Pleas­ant Foot­ball Acad­e­my on Sep­tem­ber 23.

In this first round of the CCC, clubs will play every club in their group once, for a to­tal of four match­es per club (two at home and two away) in the five sched­uled weeks.

Af­ter the group stage, the first-and sec­ond-placed fin­ish­ers in each group will ad­vance to the semi­fi­nals (Oc­to­ber 21-23 and 28-30, 2025), with the third place and fi­nal set for No­vem­ber 25-27 and De­cem­ber 2-4, where the Caribbean’s new cham­pi­on will be crowned.

Fur­ther­more, the fi­nal­ists and the third-place win­ner will qual­i­fy for the 2026 Con­ca­caf Cham­pi­ons Cup, with the cham­pi­on re­ceiv­ing a bye to the round of 16 of the Con­fed­er­a­tion’s pre­mier 27-club com­pe­ti­tion.

Last year, Cav­a­lier FC re­tained their ti­tle, de­feat­ing Cibao FC of the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic in the CCC fi­nal on away goals af­ter the two-legged se­ries end­ed in a 2–2 ag­gre­gate draw.

Mis­cel­la­neous Po­lice FC and de­throned TTPFL cham­pi­on AC Port-of-Spain (AC PoS), who fin­ished the sea­son in the third and fourth spots, re­spec­tive­ly, will con­test the CFU Club Shield, with the ad­di­tion­al fourth spot be­ing spe­cif­ic to the 2025 edi­tion of the com­pe­ti­tion, as stat­ed by CFU gen­er­al sec­re­tary Ca­ma­ra David via a press re­lease to T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Kieron Ed­wards on May 17.

Con­ca­caf Caribbean Cup sched­ule

Group Stage Week 1

Au­gust 19

Mount Pleas­ant FA vs SV Robin­hood - Sta­di­um East, Kingston, Ja­maica, 7 pm

Cibao FC vs Cav­a­lier FC - Es­ta­dio Cibao FC, San­ti­a­go de los Ca­balleros, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, 8 pm

Au­gust 20

O&M FC vs Cen­tral FC - Es­ta­dio Fe­lix Sanchez, San­to Domin­go, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, 8 pm

Au­gust 21

De­fence Force FC vs Ju­ven­tus de Cayes - Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo, 8 pm

Group Stage Week 2

Au­gust 26

SV Robin­hood vs Cen­tral FC - Frank Essed Sta­dion, Para­mari­bo, Suri­name, 7 pm

CFU Club Shield run­ner-up vs Cibao FC - TBC, 8 pm

Au­gust 27

CFU Club Shield cham­pi­on vs Mount Pleas­ant FA - TBC, 8 pm

Au­gust 28

Cav­a­lier FC vs Ju­ven­tus des Cayes - Sabi­na Park, Kingston, Ja­maica, 7 pm

Group Stage Week 3

Sep­tem­ber 16

Cen­tral FC vs CFU Club Shield Cham­pi­on - Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo, 8 pm

Sep­tem­ber 17

Cav­a­lier FC vs De­fence Force FC - Sabi­na Park, Kingston, Ja­maica, 7 pm

Sep­tem­ber 18

SV Robin­hood vs O&M FC - Frank Essed Sta­dion, Para­mari­bo, Suri­name, 7 pm

Ju­ven­tus de Cayes vs CFU Club Shield Run­ner-Up - Es­ta­dio Cibao FC, San­ti­a­go de los Ca­balleros, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, 8 pm

Group Stage Week 4

Sep­tem­ber 23

Ju­ven­tus de Cayes vs Cibao FC - Es­ta­dio Cibao FC, San­ti­a­go de los Ca­balleros, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, 8 pm

Cen­tral FC vs Mount Pleas­ant FA - Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo, 8 pm

Sep­tem­ber 24

O&M FC vs CFU Club Shield Cham­pi­on - TBC, 8 pm

Sep­tem­ber 25

De­fence Force FC vs CFU Club Shield run­ner-up - Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo, 8 pm

Group Stage Week 5

Sep­tem­ber 30

CFU Club Shield cham­pi­on vs SV Robin­hood - TBC, 8 pm

Mount Pleas­ant FA vs O&M FC - Sta­di­um East, Kingston, Ja­maica, 7 pm

Oc­to­ber 1

CFU Club Shield Run­ner-Up vs Cav­a­lier FC - TBC, 8 pm

Cibao FC vs De­fence Force FC - Es­ta­dio Cibao FC, San­ti­a­go de los Ca­balleros, Do­mini­ca Re­pub­lic, 8 pm


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