Football in Trinidad and Tobago

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Football in Trinidad and Tobago
CountryTrinidad and Tobago
Governing body Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
National team(s) Men's national team
First played1862
National competitions
International competitions
The Hasely Crawford Stadium. HCStadium2013.jpg
The Hasely Crawford Stadium.

Men's football leagues

The professional first-division league in Trinidad and Tobago is the TT Pro League, which consists of nine teams located on the island of Trinidad. The Pro League was formed in 1999 as part of a need for a professional league to strengthen the country's national team and improve the development of domestic players. [1] The most successful club in the league has been Defence Force, who has won the league championship 22 times. The National Super League is the semi-professional second-division league in Trinidad and Tobago and contains 12 teams. The Super League was founded in 2003 to allow the best teams from association football to play in a semi-professional environment, as they prepare for life in the professional game. [2] The amateur third and fourth divisions of six regional football associations which govern their own first and second divisions.

Contents

The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association sanctions regional tournaments that allow entry into the FA Trophy, which is the premier knockout tournament for teams in Trinidad and Tobago. The competition is open to all those affiliated with the FA. The FA Trophy is the oldest football competition in Trinidad and Tobago, dating back to 1927 and pits teams from the top three levels of the football pyramid against each other each year, similar to England's FA Cup.

International competitions

Trinidad and Tobago are members of CONCACAF, which governs association football in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Trinidad and Tobago are also members of the Caribbean Football Union and compete in regional competitions staged by the governing body. At the club level, CFU organises an annual competition, called the CFU Club Championship, open to the champions of each Caribbean's football association first-division. Presently, the TT Pro League has two automatic qualification places given to the top 2 teams in the league standings following each season. The league champion is automatically seeded and enter the competition in the Second Round, whereas the league runner-up enter in the First Round.

As of the 2012–13 CONCACAF Champions League, Caribbean qualifying teams include the top three clubs from the 2012 CFU Club Championship. In the case any Caribbean club is precluded, it is supplanted by the fourth-place finisher from the CFU Club Championship. Between 2008–09 and 2011–12, the Champions League was played as a twenty-four team tournament with a preliminary round, followed by a sixteen-team group stage (four groups of four), followed by an eight-team home-and-away single-elimination tournament. In early 2012, CONCACAF announced a new format for the 2012–13 edition of its Champions League. Under the new format, the preliminary round would be eliminated, and group play would consist of eight groups of three teams each, with each group winner advancing to the quarterfinals.

Trinidadians playing in foreign leagues

Since the early 1990s, many Trinidad and Tobago men have found opportunities playing football at the highest levels of foreign leagues. Among the first players from Trinidad and Tobago to become regulars in foreign leagues were Dwight Yorke at Aston Villa and later Manchester United in England, Leonson Lewis at Académica de Coimbra in Portugal, and Brian Haynes at FC Dallas in the United States. The following is a list of Trinidadians playing in foreign leagues:

National teams

The Trinidad and Tobago men's and women's national soccer teams represent Trinidad and Tobago in international competition. The men's national team competes in the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Confederations Cup, in addition to the CFU Caribbean Cup, CONCACAF Gold Cup and other competitions by invitation. The women's national team competes in the FIFA Women's World Cup, and the Summer Olympics, in addition to the CONCACAF Women's Championship and other competitions by invitation.

In recent years, the men's national team have been the most successful in the Caribbean, having qualified for the only 2006 FIFA World Cup and have won the CFU's Caribbean Cup 8 times since it was founded in 1990. By claiming the Caribbean Cup in 1989, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2001, Trinidad and Tobago have qualified for the CONCACAF Gold Cup more than any other Caribbean nation. Though the national team have never claimed the Gold Cup title, their best finish came in the 1973 CONCACAF Championship when they finished runners-up to Haiti. The Trinidad and Tobago women's national team competed in their first international match in 1991 with a 3-1 victory over Mexico. The women's team have yet to qualify for the FIFA Women's World Cup with their best performance in the CONCACAF Women's Championship coming in the 1991 when they finished in third place.

In addition to the Trinidad and Tobago national team, the island of Tobago also has an official football team that represents the island. The team is not affiliated with FIFA, CONCACAF, nor the CFU and as a result may not enter any of the organisation's football competitions.

Football stadiums in Trinidad and Tobago

The 20,000-capacity Queen's Park Oval is the largest non-football venue in Trinidad and Tobago. The stadium is used mostly for cricket.

#StadiumMain sportCapacityTenantsImage
1 Hasely Crawford Stadium Association football 22,575 Trinidad and Tobago national football team, San Juan Jabloteh F.C. Hasely Crawford Stadium, Trinidad.jpg
2 Ato Boldon Stadium Association football 10,000 TnT Ato Boldon Stadium.jpg
3 Larry Gomes Stadium Association football 10,000
4 Manny Ramjohn Stadium Association football 10,000

See also

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The TT Premier Football League is the Trinidad and Tobago professional league for association football clubs. It is the country's primary football competition and serves as the top division in the Trinidad and Tobago football league system. Contested by ten clubs, the league is one of the world's few football leagues that does not operate on an automatic system of promotion and relegation. Seasons run from September to May, with teams playing 18 games each totaling 90 games in the season. Most games are played in the evenings of Fridays and Saturdays, with a few games played during weekday evenings. TT Premier Football League clubs also play in other competitions, such as the FA Trophy, League Cup, TOYOTA Classic, Goal Shield, and Pro Bowl against domestic clubs from other divisions; and against clubs from other countries in the CONCACAF Caribbean Cup and the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

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Joe Public Football Club was a football club from Trinidad and Tobago that used to play in the TT Pro League. Nicknamed the Eastern Lions, it was owned by former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner.

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The history of the TT Pro League has its roots spanning back to the 1970s and 1980s when Trinidad and Tobago experienced an upswing in support for its domestic football. Several of the national team players featured for Defence Force during its dominance of the National League, which included the Teteron Boys becoming the first Trinidadian and only second club from CONCACAF to accomplish the continental treble in 1985. In addition, the national team also rose to prominence in the late 1980s after falling short by one match of qualification for the nation's first FIFA World Cup in 1989. Optimism for the growth and community interest of football in Trinidad and Tobago was at an all-time high. However, the early 1990s would mark a low point in Trinidad and Tobago football. In 1993, after a streak of poor performances, the Soca Warriors gave its worst ever showing in the 1993 Caribbean Cup after finishing a disappointing third, which was preceded by an early exit from its '94 for Sure campaign to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup hosted in the United States.

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References

  1. ↑ "FCD goes to Trinidad for Hislop Tribute Cup". FC Dallas Media Relations. 2007-09-26. Retrieved 2009-10-16.[ permanent dead link ]
  2. ↑ "TSTT sponsors bmobile Super League". Joel Bailey (T&T Newsday). 2006-07-14. Archived from the original on 2012-03-06. Retrieved 2009-10-11.
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