Men's football leagues

The professional first-division league in

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

is the

TT Pro League The TT Premier Football League (formerly known as the TT Pro 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 an ...

, which consists of nine teams located on the island of

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

. The Pro League was formed in 1999 as part of a need for a

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

league to strengthen the country's national team and improve the development of domestic players. 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 Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a cons ...

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. The amateur third and fourth divisions of six regional football associations which govern their own first and second divisions. 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 The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

International competitions

are members of

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 4 ...

, which governs

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

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

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,

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

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 Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

in England, Leonson Lewis at Académica de Coimbra in Portugal, and Brian Haynes at

FC Dallas FC Dallas is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The franchise be ...

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

in international competition. The men's national team competes in the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

and the

FIFA Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBO ...

, 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 The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior list of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Footb ...

, 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 The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

and have won the CFU's Caribbean Cup 8 times since it was founded in 1990. By claiming the Caribbean Cup in

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

, 1996,

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

and

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

, 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 Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

. The Trinidad and Tobago women's national team competed in their first international match in 1991 with a 3-1 victory over

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. The women's team have yet to qualify for the

with their best performance in the CONCACAF Women's Championship coming in the

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

when they finished in third place. In addition to the

national team, the island of

Tobago Tobago, officially the Ward of Tobago, is an List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, island and Regions and municipalities of Trinidad and Tobago, ward within the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located northeast of the larger islan ...

also has an official football team that represents the island. The team is not affiliated with

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

, 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 Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

References

External links

Trinidad and Tobago Football AssociationSoca Warriors Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Football In Trinidad And Tobago