Puerto Rican and Trinidadian derbies will highlight the opening day of the final round of the Caribbean Club Champions Cup with the Puerto Rico Islanders facing Bayamon FC and Joe Public opposing San Juan Jabloteh.
Concacaf, NY, announced today thatThe final league phase will be staged in Macoya, Trinidad, May 5-9 at Marvin Lee Stadium with the top three finishers qualifying for the Preliminary Round of the CONCACAF Champions League.
Joe Public is seeking a third Caribbean title while Jabloteh is looking for its second and first since 2003. The seven-year-old Puerto Rico Islanders have never won the Caribbean crown, but are hoping for a third straight berth in the Champions League.
It was also announced that the CFU said the second-round group of matches originally slated for Cuba has been moved to Trinidad.
Initially set to be played simultaneously with Group F, already scheduled for Trinidad, Group G will be played on alternate days with its regional counterpart beginning May 10.
Group F will be moved from Mannie Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella to Marvin Lee Stadium in Macoya. Group G will then play all of its matches in Marabella. The changes were necessary due to Antigua & Barbuda’s limited availability in obtaining flights to Cuba.
The CFU also added an extra round of qualifying Tuesday to determine the teams it will send to the 2010 Women’s Gold Cup.
With CONCACAF expanding the field of its championship from six to eight teams – and the Caribbean’s number of berths from two to three, the CFU said it will take the top two finishers from each second-round qualifying group to play a third league phase to decide its participants.
The CONCACAF Executive Committee approved recommendations from its various competition committees to enlarge the tournaments, setting new berth allocations for the confederation's three zones: North America, Central America and the Caribbean.
And superseding a decision in November that required the three North American teams (Canada, Mexico and the United States) to enter into qualifying with Central America, the Executive Committee approved that for both the men's U-17 and U-20 championships all three North American teams again will qualify automatically for the finals, while Central America will get four berths and the Caribbean five.
That happens when the CONCACAF under-20 and under-17 championships will expand to 12 teams beginning in 2011.