Paul Nicholson | www.insideworldfootball.com
The Caribbean Football Union (CFU) have appointed hosts and made the draw for the 2014 CFU Club Championship Cup. 13 teams will compete for the championship, with the top three teams qualifying for the 2014/2015 CONCACAF Champions League.
There will be three groups of four teams, with defending champions Valencia Football Club from Haiti getting a bye to enter the competition in the final round. The group stages will be played in March 19-26, with the final knock-out stages in April 16-21.
The CFU has appointed cities and hosts for the group stages but the venue for the finals will be announced at a later date.
Bayamon from Puerto Rico will host Group 1 and will play Centro Dominguito from Curacao, Bodden Town from the Cayman Islands and Unite Saint Rosienne from Guadeloupe.
Group 2 will be hosted by Association Sportive de Mirebalais from Haiti, competing against Waterhouse Football Cub from Jamaica, Inter Moegotopoe from Suriname and Caledonia AIA from Trinidad and Tobago.
Group 3 will be played in Jamaica and hosted by Harbour View Football Club. They will meet Alpha United from Guyana, Defence Force Football Team from Trinidad & Tobago and Sporting Vereniging Notch from Suriname.
The three group winners will go through to the semi-finals where they will join seeded club Valencia. The top three will qualify for the 2014/15 CONCACAF Champions League.
In the current Champions League competition the three CFU qualifers were seeded in the third group for the draw of the 24 team competition (there were eight groups of three). None of the CFU clubs qualified for the next round of the competition though W Connection from Trinidad and Tobago pulled off a notable draw against Houston Dynamo from the MLS.