TNT X-Men (Over-50) and ERA Mas­ters (Over-40) will both put their re­spec­tive ti­tles on the line when the Caribbean’s biggest mas­ters 11-a-side foot­ball tour­na­ment re­turns to To­ba­go this week­end af­ter a three-year hia­tus.

The four-day To­ba­go Mas­ters Foot­ball Tour­na­ment (TMFT) host­ed by SW Tour­ing Lim­it­ed in con­junc­tion with To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) Di­vi­sion of Tourism, Cul­ture, An­tiq­ui­ties and Trans­port, will fea­ture 18 teams from T&T, Grena­da and Bar­ba­dos con­test­ing the ninth edi­tion dubbed, "Let’s Play, To­ba­go”, from Thurs­day (Oc­to­ber 12) un­til Sun­day (Oc­to­ber 15) at both the Shaw Park Sports Com­plex, Scar­bor­ough, and Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um in Ba­co­let.

Ac­cord­ing to SW Tour­ing Lim­it­ed di­rec­tor Ryan “Bumpy” Brown, the TMFT seeks to fur­ther ex­pose par­tic­i­pants and spec­ta­tors to the unique iden­ti­ty of To­ba­go's cul­ture, en­ter­tain­ment and culi­nary mas­ter­pieces.

The event has pre­vi­ous­ly at­tract­ed some of T&T's most fa­mous past se­nior foot­ballers, the likes of Arnold Dwari­ka, Leon­son Lewis, An­sil El­cock, An­tho­ny Rougi­er and oth­ers, as well as for­mer in­ter­na­tion­al foot­ballers from across the re­gion, like one of St Vin­cent's most capped play­ers, Kendall Velox, who spent much of his club ca­reer play­ing in T&T.

TNT X-Men are the de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons in the over-50 di­vi­sion, which was con­test­ed for the first time in 2017, while ERA Mas­ters cap­tained by St Lu­cian foot­ball leg­end Earl “Ball Hog” Jean, are the de­fend­ing Over-40 di­vi­sion cham­pi­ons, and both will face fierce com­pe­ti­tion from the likes of T&T De­fence Force Mas­ters, cham­pi­ons in 2014 and 2015 and Bar­ba­di­ans' Wildey FC, the 2016 win­ners, with the aim of se­cur­ing some of the tour­na­ments' more than $60,000 in cash prizes.

Speak­ing ahead of the com­pe­ti­tion Brown said the TMFT has added two ini­tia­tives to the brand.

He said, "First­ly by mov­ing to the icon­ic Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um in Ba­co­let where the par­tic­i­pants will be able to com­pete on a pris­tine play­ing sur­face in a safe and se­cure en­vi­ron­ment where all their needs of food, drink, en­ter­tain­ment will be met, and sec­ond­ly, they have in­tro­duced the TMFT Goes Green ini­tia­tive, where they’ve part­nered with the To­ba­go Re­cy­cling Re­source Ini­tia­tive to in­cor­po­rate re­cy­cling bins at venues as they take the ini­tial steps in join­ing the fight against wastage and for en­er­gy sus­tain­abil­i­ty."

He said the in­ten­tion is to build on the ini­tia­tives "which high­light the is­land's cul­ture and pro­tect its nat­ur­al beau­ty".

Pro­ceed­ings start on Thurs­day at the Shaw Park Sports Com­plex from 6 pm be­fore the com­pe­ti­tion moves to the Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um from Fri­day 13 un­til Sun­day with match­es from 11 am to 9 pm, dai­ly.

The win­ners of the Over-40 com­pe­ti­tion group will take home US$2,000 and the sec­ond-placed team will col­lect US$1,000 while the "Most Valu­able Play­er" (MVP), "Gold­en Boot" and "Gold­en Gloves" will each take home US$150.

In the Over-50 Di­vi­sion, the cham­pi­on will al­so re­ceive US$1,000 with the run­ners-up col­lect­ing $700 while the MVP, "Gold­en Boot" and "Gold­en Gloves" will al­so col­lect US$150 each.

Ad­mis­sion is free to the pub­lic with a full ar­ray of lo­cal cui­sine and re­fresh­ments on sale.

Brown al­so made spe­cial men­tion to some of the key spon­sors for com­ing on board in­clu­sive of the THA's Di­vi­sion of Tourism, Cul­ture, An­tiq­ui­ties, and Trans­porta­tion (DT­CAT); the Min­istry of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment; To­ba­go Tourism Agency Lim­it­ed (TTAL) An­gos­tu­ra; U Me­dia Brand­ing and To­ba­go Re­cy­cling Re­source Ini­tia­tive.