T&T Soca Warriors could find themselves in a possible four-team group of this year’s Caribbean Football Union Men’s Caribbean Cup with 2012 finals and nemesis Cuba, 2007 winner Haiti and Guadeloupe at home should they reach the finals scheduled for Jamaica. This will be the fifth time Jamaica will host the Championship round. This was disclosed when the draw for the group stages of this year’s edition of the competition, the flagship tournament of the CFU as the tournament displays some of the best footballers throughout the region, was made in the capital Kingston on Monday.
It also serves as a qualifier to the Concacaf Gold Cup competition. The biennial tournament is expected to be staged during the FIFA calendar window of November 10-18 and will be hosted in picturesque Montego Bay, Jamaica’s tourist capital. T&T, which was beaten 1-0 by Cuba in the 2012 final in St John’s Antigua & Barbuda, has won the title a record eight times (1989, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2001) while it has also ended as runners-up four times and third twice while Jamaica is next best with five titles (1991, 1998, 2005, 2008 and 2010) along with two second- and third-place finishes each.
The trio of defending champions, Cuba (2012), Martinique (1993) and Haiti (2007) are the only other teams to have lifted the title. The CFU tournament will official kick off with two groups of preliminary round qualifiers from May 28 to June 4 with Bonaire welcoming Montserrat and US Virgin Islands in Group One while Aruba entertains, British Virgin Islands, French Guiana and the Turks and Caicos Islands in Group Two at the end of which the group winners will qualifying to the CFU First Round qualifying groups with their matches set for between September 1 -8.
Then in the Second round, T&T, Haiti and Guadeloupe will all host one group of qualifiers involving four teams each from which the group winners, runners-up and the best third placed team overall will earn tickets to the eight-team finals in Montego Bay. From the CFU Championship finals, the teams reaching the semifinals will qualify to next year’s Concacaf Gold Cup while the fifth placed team will meet the Central American Confederation fifth placed team in a playoff for another Gold Cup spot. The Soca Warriors meanwhile will use it’s three top quality friendly games schedule for May/June 2014 against Colombia, Argentina and Iran respectively as tune-ups for the (CFU) Caribbean Championship tournament.
CFU men’s cup groupings
Preliminary round (May 28 - June 4)
Group One: Bonaire (host), Montserrat, USVI
Group Two: Aruba (host), British Virgin Islands, French Guiana, Turks & Caicos
NB: Winner of each preliminary round group advances to First round
First round (September 1 - 8):
Group Three: Martinique (host), Barbados, Suriname, Winner of Group One
Group Four: Puerto Rico (host), Grenada, Curacao, Winner of Group Two
Group Five: Antigua & Barbuda, Dominican Republic, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Anguilla
Group Six: St Kitts/Nevis, Dominica, Guyana, St Lucia
NB: Group winners, runner-ups and best third place team overall advance to Second round
Second round: October 6 -13, 2014:
Group Seven: T&T (host), Winner of Group 5, Runner-up Group 6, Best overall Third place
Group Eight: Haiti (host), Winner Group 6, Runner-up Group 3, Runner-up Group 4
Group Nine: Guadeloupe (host), Winner of Group 4, Winner of Group 3, Runner-up of Group 5
Finals: Montego Bay, Jamaica (November 9 - 18
Group 10: Cuba (defending champions), Winner of Group 7, Runner-up of Group 8, Runner-up Group 9
Group 11: Jamaica (host), Winner of Group 9, Winner of Group 8, Runner-up Group 7
Past Tournaments
Year Host Winner Score Runner-up Third Score Fourth:
Shell Caribbean Cup
1989 Barbados T&T 2-1 Grenada Guadeloupe Table Neth Antilles
1990 T&T Abandoned Due to Coup Attempt
1991 Jamaica Jamaica 2-0 T&T St Lucia 4-1 Guyana
1992 T&T T&T 3-1 Jamaica Martinique 1-1 Cuba
1993 Jamaica Martinique 0-0 Jamaica T&T 3-2 St Kitts/Nevis
1994 T&T T&T 7-2 Martinique Guadeloupe 2-0 Suriname
1995 CI/Jamaica T&T 5-0 SVG Cuba 3-0 Cayman Islands
Umbro/Shell Caribbean Cup
1996 T&T T&T 2-0 Cuba Martinique 1-1 Suriname
1997 Anti/St Kitts T&T 4-0 SKN Jamaica 4-1 Grenada
Shell Caribbean Cup
1998 Jam/T&T Jamaica 2-1 T&T Haiti 3-2 A&B
1999 T&T T&T 2-1 Cuba Haiti n/a Jamaica
2001 T&T T&T 3-0 Haiti Martinique 1-0 Cuba
Digicel Caribbean Cup
2005 Barbados Jamaica 1-0 Cuba T&T 3-2 Barbados
2007 T&T Haiti 2-1 T&T Cuba 2-1 Guadeloupe
2008 Jamaica Jamaica 2-0 Grenada Guadeloupe 0-0 Cuba
2010 Martinique Jamaica 1-1 Guadeloupe Cuba 1-0 Grenada
2012 A&B Cuba 1-0 T&T Haiti 1-0 Martinique