By: BoriQa | January 11th, 2009
The Puerto Rico Islanders (underdogs last year that surprised the field by finishing in 3rd place) were seeded by the CFU as one of the top two teams this year, and qualified directly to the 2nd round of the 2009 Caribbean Club Champions Cup. Trinidad & Tobago’s San Juan Jabloteh (4th place last year) was the second team seeded, and also qualified to the 2nd round of the tournament.
The top two teams from last year’s tournament (Jamaica’s Harbour View & Trinidad’s Joe Public) failed to make the tournament this year. Twelve other teams will be paired for two-leg series on March 18th and 25th, with the six winners advancing to join the Puerto Rico Islanders and San Juan Jabloteh in the next Round.
The twelve teams in the first round include: W. Connection of Trinidad, Jamaica’s Portmore United, Haitian Clubs Tempête and Cavaly SA, Inter Moengo Tapoe of Suriname, Greenbay Hoppers of Antigua & Barbuda, Sevilla FC Puerto Rico, Guyana’s Alpha United, Dominica’s Centre Bath Estate, Aruba’s teams SV Racing Club and SV Britannia, and Curaçao’s CSD Barber.
The CFU Club Champions Cup draw for the first round will take place on January 15th , 2009 at the CONCACAF office in New York. Both Finalists and the 3rd place team will qualify to the 2009/2010 CONCACAF Champions League.
The Puerto Rico Islanders are the only remaining Caribbean team of the top three teams last year still in alive in the 2008/2009 CONCACAF Champions League. The Islanders will play Honduras’ Marathon in the two-leg quarterfinals series of the tournament on February 26th & March 5th.
