Caribbean Premier League Thread

[Tallman]

Burrell: Caribbean not ready for Pro League
By Ryon Jones (Jamaica Gleaner)

There are discussions across the region for the revival of the Caribbean Professional Football League (CPFL), which would reintroduce professional football in the Caribbean by setting up a multinational league.

Jeffrey Webb, president of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) and chief executive officer of the Trinidad and Tobago Pro League, Dexter Skeene, have thrown their support behind the idea. Jamaica Football Federation president and CONCACAF vice-president, Captain Horace Burrell is, however, saying not so fast.

"I have heard some talk, but, frankly and honestly speaking, there is no infrastructural development across the Caribbean to accommodate such a football competition in a structured way, so personally, I don't see this manifesting itself now," Burrell reasoned. "There is so much that needs to be done before we can start looking at that, such as the level of financing and travel. Maybe in years to come, this will happen, but for right now, there is no infrastructural development.

"The CONCACAF president has said that a task force will be named to assess and do some preliminary work," Hughes disclosed. "The task force has not been named as yet, so until that is done, we will just continue as is."

SUSTAINABLE LEAGUE

Webb stated during a sports summit held in the Cayman Islands last October, that the Caribbean should consider a sustainable professional league.

"Our territories still lack a meaningful established professional league for the players to aspire to," Webb said. "This is a conversation and a topic for the Caribbean and for the smaller territories to make that giant step of competing and qualifying for a World Cup. This is something that must be at the top of the agenda for Caribbean football."

Webb did add that in order for such a league to be sustainable, economic partners and the support of governments would be needed.

Burrell is in agreement with Webb on that point as he believes steps will have to be taken to improve football in the small territories before the commencement of a regional football league.

"We also need infrastructural development prior to the league to ensure that all the countries are on a level playing field," Burrell said. "And also that it could be attractive enough for people to want to watch; the grounds will have to be improved."

Following discussions that dated back to 1977 the CPFL was first established in 1992. The teams that entered were franchises set up by local businessmen, but the league suffered from financial and organisational problems. In October 1994, the league was renamed Caribbean Major League Football, but the 1995 staging was cancelled after a number of postponements, and the tournament was not revived.

The Jamaican teams that entered over the four seasons were Kingston Lions, Wavers (later renamed Reno International), Cornwall County Lions and Harbour View.

[Tiresais]

Finally some common sense - we all want proper Caribbean football representation, but we all have unique infrastructural problems right now and none of us have the attendances (except maybe Haiti) to get this model sustainable. Let's work from the community up, get the Caribbean Club Championship running regularly with sponsors to cover travel, and support local leagues before throwing money into the Caribbean Sea

[dreamer]

Agreed

[Tallman]

CONCACAF Hosts Second Caribbean Premier League Task Force Meeting
CONCACAF.com

The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) held today the second meeting of the Caribbean Premier League Task Force, hosted by CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb and General Secretary Enrique Sanz.
 
The meeting, which took place in Montego Bay during the CONCACAF Under-20 Championship finals, was attended by regional and international experts from various areas of the football industry, including Former Prime Minister of Jamaica and Chairman of Jamaica's Premier League, the Most Honorable Edward Seaga, Premier League Chairman Richard Scudamore, MLS Commissioner Don Garber, and Liga MX President Decio De Maria, among other important figures in regional football.
 
“This meeting signifies another step that CONCACAF has taken to evaluate the viability of a Caribbean league,” said Webb. “We would all agree that to continue with the advancement of football in the Caribbean region we must improve the foundation of the sport and develop necessary infrastructures and talents.”
 
The Task Force opened proceedings by reviewing the report of a detailed regional stadium infrastructure study commissioned by CONCACAF. The study revealed a group of countries that could host and participate in a potential Caribbean Premier League based on their existing facilities. The study consisted of visits to four countries and nine stadiums and also recommended additional visits to other markets with 5,000-plus capacity venues.
 
Among the many topics discussed was the initial Caribbean Professional League viability report, created by Rethink Management Group, a renowned consultancy firm focused on advising football entities internationally. The presented report led to the discussion on the positives and negatives of potential competition formats and their correlated financial models.
 
Chief Executive of the Premier League, Mr. Richard Scudamore said: "The excellent work that the Task Force has already done provided a very good basis for our discussions. The Premier League is honored to be involved and will assist in any way it can to bring this initiative of President Webb and his colleagues to reality.”
 
The Caribbean Premier League Task Force concluded the meeting by commissioning additional studies, including one focused on an in-depth analysis of the Caribbean sports market, specifically on existing sporting events from a ticket sales, sponsorship and TV broadcast metrics.
 
CONCACAF Caribbean Premier League Task Force
 
Chairman:
Yves Jean Bart, President Haitian Football Federation
 
Members:
Honorable Dr. Keith Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada
Richard Scudamore, Chief Executive Premier League
Damien Hughes, Caribbean Football Union General Secretary
Simon Firth, Partner, Maples and Calder, Cayman Islands
Don Garber, Commissioner, Major League Soccer
Edward Seaga, former Prime Minister of Jamaica and Chairman of Jamaica’s Premier League)
David J. Williams, Owner/President of W Connection Football Club, Trinidad and Tobago
Decio de Maria, President Liga MX
Shaka Hislop, Football Commentator and Ex-Trinidad & Tobago National Team Player
Randy Harris, President Barbados Football Federation
Honourable Randolph Horton, Speaker of the House of Assembly of Bermuda
James Johnson, FIFA
Jefferson Slack, Senior Vice President, Global Business Development, Football, IMG
Kieran Foley, Group Head Marketing, Digicel

[Tiresais]

Interesting group of people... With enough national and private backing there's a small chance, but as noted the infrastructure needs to be there

[Deeks]

Right now only Connection and TTDF, I think can participate. If Central were fortunate to get a committed long term sponsor, they can partipate also.

[Tallman]

Pelé’s Santos FC returns to the Caribbean on 45th anniversary
blog.cpdfootball.de

The Caribbean Football Trust Limited (CFTL) will create a monumental event in the history of Caribbean football. In 2017 there will be the official launch of the Caribbean League Futbol (CLF) featuring the legendary Pelé’s Brazilian home team of Santos FC from Sao Paulo.

In 1972 Santos FC, featuring three-times Brazilian World Cup winner Pelé toured the Caribbean countries of Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago with much success.

Now, in 2017, 45 years later Santos FC will take center stage in a „Best of Three“ games series kicking off January 27 at the Windsor Park in Dominica continuing January 29 at the Arnos Vale Stadium in St. Vincent and then on February 4, the final game will be played at the Andre Kamperveen Stadium in Suriname.

The final game will be for the prestigious inaugural ISLANDS CUP OPEN and would be versus the newly established Combine Islands FC. CFTL is also preparing to offer fans a “Major International Friendly” bonus game featuring two major international clubs scheduled for February 1 in St. Vincent at the Arnos Vale Stadium.

Several International Elite Marquee players will be representing the Combine Islands FC team as guest players in all three games. The names of these players will be announced in the upcoming weeks.

After years of planning by the Directors of the CTFL and its partners, the Chairman and CFO of the CTFL, Chris Anderson made the announcement yesterday at a Board Meeting.

“This is a proud moment for all of us in the Caribbean as there will finally be a very high profile professional league in the region and our players and coaches can earn a living participating in the sport they love,” said Chris Anderson.

This announcement comes after support (as it relates to the concept and structure) was garnered from several regional associations’ presidents as well as Heads of State and Ministers of Tourism. The vision of stimulating the regional tourism product and placing focus on Sports and Entertainment Tourism as a main platform to drive their tourism products would be of benefit to the region.

CFTL’s main focus is to establish across CARICOM member states modern sports and entertainment complexes, including sports rehab centers and vacation/ residential estate homes. These will be targeted to multi-million dollar earning athletes and entertainers. CFTL is confident that this aspect of the project is of utmost importance for the region.

One of the major aims of the CLF is to fast track the development of young regional footballers and to show-case their talents on the international stage. This will lead to an improvement in the performance of Caribbean players whether at club or national level. It is hoped that this will result in more Caribbean member national teams appearing at FIFA World Cup competitions.

In depth discussions have been on going with entities outside of the CONCACAF region. These include entities from Europe, the Middle East and Asia with regards to investment and sponsorship in this new CLF Intellectual property initiative.

CFTL looks forward to finalizing the commitment of the first set of Marquee Players and Head coaches. These announcements will be made within the next few months in time for the CLF 2017 kick off.

The CLF shall be operational for a twelve weeks period between June and August of each calendar year. The first official competitive season shall consist of scheduled games three days per week: Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, (all double headers) to be played in the selected countries in two groups of four clubs per hub. In addition to the regular season and its play-off Champions Cup titles CLF shall organize two CLF All Star Teams for annual friendly games at the end of each season to showcase the collective talent of the region. CFTL will host games in markets where international games are not regularly hosted.

[Tallman]

A big project is in the making that could be debuting sooner than you think. As the Caribbean Pro League is a go, that's according to former football star Brent Sancho who is part of a CONCACAF Working Group tasked with exploring the viability of such an initiative.