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T&T Premier Football League (TTPFL) champions Defence Force and runners-up Club Sando have been drawn in the same five-team Group A for the fourth edition of the ten-team 2026 Concacaf Caribbean Cup. The tournament takes place from August to December, with the top three clubs ultimately qualifying for the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup.
The matchups were determined during Concacaf’s official, made-for-TV draw live from Miami, Florida on Tuesday night. Hosted by Mariah Ramharack, the event featured appearances by Concacaf general secretary Philippe Moggio, as well as former standout players Gilberto Eind of Suriname and Densill Theobald, a member of T&T’s historic 2006 FIFA World Cup squad.
Following the draw, the Devorn Jorsling-coached Defence Force, the reigning back-to-back T&T champions, and the Angus Eve-coached Club Sando were grouped alongside Haiti’s Violette, Suriname’s SV Broki, and the runner-up of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Club Shield competition, which takes place in July.
Group B features Dominican Republic duos Cibao FC and Salcedo FC, alongside Jamaican pair Cavalier FC (former tournament winners) and Portmore United FC. They will be joined by the eventual CFU Club Shield champions.
Domestically, Defence Force topped the 2025/2026 TTPFL Tier I season with 52 points from 22 matches, finishing three points clear of Club Sando. Meanwhile, the Dexter Cyrus-coached Prison Service ended in third spot with 47 points, three ahead of Miscellaneous Police FC, to secure their first-ever spot in a confederation club competition.
Prisons will head to the CFU Club Shield, which serves as a qualifier for the Caribbean Cup. They will be joined by Jamaica’s Mount Pleasant, who also had to contest the CFU Club Shield after edging Montego Bay 3-2 for the third spot in the Wray & Nephew Jamaica Premier League playoffs last weekend.
Last year, Defence Force secured the final remaining spot in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup by finishing third in the Caribbean Cup. They achieved this via a 4-2 aggregate triumph against Cibao FC, following up a 3-0 first-leg win at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo, Port-of-Spain with a narrow 2-1 loss in the second leg at Estadio Cibao in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic.
This was after, Defence Force had finished second in their five-team Group B round-robin series with seven points from four matches. They edged out Barbadian side Weymouth Wales on goal difference, plus-two to Wales’ plus-one. Cibao topped that group with nine points, while 2024 winners Cavalier FC finished fourth with four points, and Haiti’s Juventus Des Cayes sat at the bottom with a single point.
In Group A, Jamaica’s Mount Pleasant dominated the table with a maximum 12 points, finishing six clear of the Dominican Republic’s O&M FC. Suriname’s SV Robinhood finished third with four points, staying ahead of T&T’s Central FC on goal difference, while Moca FC anchored the cellar position with three points.
In the home-and-away semifinals, Mount Pleasant defeated Defence Force 5-2 on aggregate (5-1 and 0-1), while O&M FC edged local rivals Cibao 2-1 over two legs (1-1 and 1-0). In the finals, Mount Pleasant defeated O&M FC 3-2 on aggregate (1-0 and 2-2) to lift the crown, while Defence Force bested Cibao 4-2 (3-0 and 1-2) for third place.
However, the subsequent step up to the Concacaf Champions Cup proved brutal. Defence Force, twice former champions of the prestigious competition, were thrashed 7-0 and 5-0 by US Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union for a 12-0 aggregate defeat. Similarly, FC Cincinnati dumped O&M FC out of the tournament 13-0 on aggregate (4-0 and 9-0).
For this year’s tournament, action begins with a Group Stage comprising two groups of five clubs each playing a round-robin series. The top two finishers from each group will advance to the home-and-away crossover semifinals.
Concacaf Caribbean Cup dates:
Group Stage Week 1: August 4–6, 2026
Group Stage Week 2: August 18–20, 2026
Group Stage Week 3: September 1–3, 2026
Group Stage Week 4: September 8–10, 2026
Group Stage Week 5: September 15–17, 2026
Semifinals: October 13–15 and October 20–22, 2026
Finals and Third Place Matches: December 1 and December 5, 2026
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