The Trinidad and Tobago football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

clubs in

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

. The system has a hierarchical format with

promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues ...

between leagues at different levels and is governed by the

Trinidad and Tobago Football Association The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) is the governing body of football in Trinidad and Tobago. It is based in Port of Spain, Trinidad. It is a member of FIFA and is responsible for governing amateur and professional football and ...

at the national level. There are over eight individual leagues, containing more than ten divisions. The exact number of clubs varies from year to year as clubs join and leave leagues or fold altogether, but an estimated average of 10 clubs per division implies that more than 100 clubs are members of a league in the Trinidad and Tobago football league system.

Structure

At the top is the single division of the TT Pro League (which is often referred to as the "top flight"), containing ten clubs. Below the Pro League is the National Super League (Level 2), which contains 13 clubs. All the teams in the Pro League are full-time

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teams, but the Super League is

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 conside ...

containing a few clubs that have close affiliations with Pro League clubs. Outside the top two levels of the pyramid, at Levels 3 and 4, are the six regional

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association leagues. Each regional association operates its own respective top division (Level 3): Premier Division (Central Football Association), Premier Division (Eastern Football Association), Football Union (Eastern Counties), Premier Division (Northern Football Association), Premier Division (Southern Football Association), and Premier Division (Tobago Football Association).these clubs are amateur, The amateur leagues that operate a second-tier division (Level 4) are the Northern FA, Southern FA, and Tobago FA.

Promotion and relegation

# TT Pro League (level 1, 10 clubs): Top team becomes Champions of Trinidad and Tobago, (no promotion). No automatic relegation. # National Super League (level 2, 13 clubs): No automatic promotion and clubs may apply for admission into level 1. However, clubs with an affiliation with a current Level 1 club may not be promoted. Bottom two clubs are relegated, to each club's appropriate regional football association league. #Regional FA Leagues (level 3, 60 clubs in 6 regional leagues): Top club in each football association's regional league compete in the promotion playoffs, with the top two teams gaining promotion. Each league has its own promotion and relegation rules.

Cup eligibility

Being members of a league at a particular level also affects eligibility for Cup, or single-elimination, competitions. *

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: Levels 1–3 *

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: Levels 1–2 * First Citizens Cup: Level 1 * Digicel Pro Bowl: Level 1 * Lucozade Sport Goal Shield: Level 1 * National Super League Cup: Level 2 Beyond Level 2 the pyramid becomes regional and the cups become accordingly regional. Further down the pyramid is split on a football association basis, with each association having their own cups accordingly.

The system

The table below shows the current structure of the system. For each division, its official name, sponsorship name, and number of clubs is given. At levels 1–4, each division promotes to the division(s) that lie directly above it and relegates to the division(s) that lie directly below it.

References

External links