WAL­TER AL­IBEY

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

wal­ter.al­ibey@guardian.co.tt

Ma­jor ad­just­ments have been made to this sea­son’s ver­sion of the T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League (TTPFL), and they will en­sure that clubs qual­i­fy­ing for re­gion­al tour­na­ments will be in a po­si­tion of readi­ness and rep­re­sent the coun­try with pride.

Last sea­son, two clubs, De­fence Force and MIC Cen­tral FC Re­boot, qual­i­fied for the Con­ca­caf Club Cup and the same num­ber (Mis­cel­la­neous Po­lice and AC Port-of-Spain) for the Con­ca­caf Club Shield; how­ev­er, on­ly De­fence Force emerged from the group stage and in­to the semi­fi­nals. For years, the clubs have com­plained that the tim­ing of the re­gion­al tour­na­ments, which usu­al­ly take place when the TTPFL is out of sea­son, has pre­vent­ed com­pet­ing lo­cal clubs from emerg­ing from the group stage.

The TTPFL launched its 2025/2026 sea­son on Sun­day evening at the VIP Lounge of the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of-Spain with the League’s Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer (CEO), Yale An­toine, ad­dress­ing the ad­just­ments, in­clu­sive of match­es in the sis­ter isle.

“As we look ahead to the new sea­son, the 2025/2026 sea­son will run from Oc­to­ber through March 2026, fea­tur­ing our reg­u­lar League com­pe­ti­tion along with our usu­al Knock-Out tour­na­ments that al­ways bring us ex­cite­ment and in­ten­si­ty. We're es­pe­cial­ly proud that this sea­son will kick off with match­es in To­ba­go, a true re­flec­tion of our com­mit­ment to en­sur­ing that pro­fes­sion­al foot­ball thrives through­out the twin is­land of T&T,” said An­toine.

“In the first round of this sea­son, run­ning up to Jan­u­ary 2026, the league will stage a min­i­mum of five match days in To­ba­go, which will be dou­ble­head­ers. This ini­tia­tive not on­ly gives the To­bag­on­ian fans a true taste of the TTPFL ex­pe­ri­ence but al­so strength­ens the foun­da­tion for foot­ball de­vel­op­ment and in­fra­struc­ture on our sis­ter isle.”

Ac­cord­ing to An­toine, who took over from Col­in Wharfe, said, “Look­ing for­ward, our next sea­son will start ear­li­er in the cal­en­dar year. This would al­low our clubs to stay in top form, which has al­ways been a con­cern, and would al­so align us with the Con­ca­caf and Caribbean Foot­ball Union (CFU) cy­cle. Those cy­cles would be around Ju­ly 2026 to Au­gust 2026, and then the Con­ca­caf Caribbean Cup will run through Oc­to­ber 2026, and the fol­low­ing knock­outs will go un­til 2027. By syn­chro­nis­ing our do­mes­tic cal­en­dar with these com­pe­ti­tions, we en­sure that the T&T clubs en­ter the re­gion­al stage match fit, com­pet­i­tive, and ready to rep­re­sent our na­tion with pride and en­er­gy.”

Twelve (12) teams will kick off the sea­son, but for the first time in To­ba­go, start­ing on Fri­day. Mis­cel­la­neous Po­lice will clash with San Juan Jabloteh at 6 pm at the Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um in Ba­co­let, while Ter­minex La Hor­quet­ta Rangers and home team FC Phoenix will square off in the sec­ond match of a dou­ble­head­er at 8 pm.

Cham­pi­on De­fence Force is sched­uled to take the field on Sun­day in a mouth­wa­ter­ing clash against AC Port-of-Spain at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um from 7 pm.

Jame­son Rigues, the League’s third vice pres­i­dent and chair­man of the Com­pe­ti­tions and Tour­na­ments Com­mit­tee, out­lined the im­por­tance of the league, say­ing, “Tonight is more than a cer­e­mo­ni­al launch, but rather a cel­e­bra­tion of progress, re­silience, and shared vi­sion. When the TTPFL was in­tro­duced, it rep­re­sent­ed a bold step to­ward re­build­ing and re-imag­ing pro­fes­sion­al foot­ball in T&T. Four sea­sons lat­er, we can proud­ly say that the league con­tin­ues to grow stronger, not on­ly on the field, but al­so in its man­age­ment, its pro­fes­sion­al­ism, and its im­pact on the com­mu­ni­ties across our twin-is­land na­tion.”

Rigues, a for­mer man­ag­er of Guaya Unit­ed FC in the pre­vi­ous ver­sion of the T&T Su­per League, not­ed, “We have seen our clubs be­come more or­gan­ised, our play­ers more am­bi­tious, and our match­es more com­pet­i­tive. The tal­ent emerg­ing from the league has al­ready be­gun to make its mark, both do­mes­ti­cal­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, and that is a sign of our struc­tured work­ings, that the foun­da­tion that we’re build­ing is one that can tru­ly sus­tain pro­fes­sion­al foot­ball in T&T for gen­er­a­tions to come.

“So, as we look ahead to the 2025 sea­son, the TTPFL re­mains com­mit­ted to de­vel­op­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion with clubs, im­prov­ing play­er-wel­fare, strength­en­ing gov­er­nance, and ex­pand­ing our league vis­i­bil­i­ty and com­mer­cial val­ue. Foot­ball has al­ways been more than a sport to us. It is a re­flec­tion of who we are, our cre­ativ­i­ty, our de­ter­mi­na­tion, our cul­ture, our uni­ty, and our flair. When our lo­cal league strives, our na­tion­al team strives, and our peo­ple stand taller and proud­ly. This is why the T&TPFL mat­ters, be­cause it’s the heart­beat of T&T foot­ball.”