The 2018 Caribbean Club Championship was the 20th edition of the

Caribbean Club Championship The Caribbean Club Championship, also known as the CFU Club Championship or CFU Club Champions' Cup, was an annual international football competition held amongst association football clubs that are members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU). T ...

(also known as the CFU Club Championship), the first-tier annual international club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

competition in the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

region, held amongst clubs whose football associations are affiliated with the

Caribbean Football Union The Caribbean Football Union (CFU) is the representative organization for football associations in the Caribbean. It represents 25 FIFA member nations, as well as 6 territories that are not affiliated to FIFA. The Union was established in Januar ...

(CFU), a sub-confederation of

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typese ...

. The winners of the 2018 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship would qualify to the

2019 CONCACAF Champions League The 2019 CONCACAF Champions League (officially the 2019 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League) was the 11th edition of the CONCACAF Champions League under its current name, and overall the 54th edition of the premier football club competition orga ...

, the second and third place teams would qualify to the 2018 CONCACAF League, while the fourth place team would play against the winners of the 2018 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield, as long as the Shield winners fulfill the CONCACAF Regional Club Licensing criteria, in a playoff match to determine the final Caribbean spot to the 2018 CONCACAF League.

Cibao The Cibao, usually referred as "El Cibao", is a region of the Dominican Republic located at the northern part of the country. As of 2009 the Cibao has a population of 5,622,378 making it the most populous region in the country. The region constitu ...

were the title holders, but were not eligible to enter since they failed to reach the final of the 2017 Liga Dominicana de Fútbol. For the second season in a row, the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship was won by a team from the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

, with

Atlético Pantoja Club Atlético Pantoja is a professional football team based in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Founded in 1999, the team is currently playing in the Liga Dominicana de Fútbol, the top division of Dominican football. History Club Atlétic ...

crowned champions and qualifying for the CONCACAF Champions League. Runners-up Arnett Gardens and third place

Portmore United Portmore United Football Club is a Jamaican football team in the top flight Jamaica National Premier League. The team trains and plays home matches at the Prison Oval. History Hazard United The club was formed as ''Hazard United'' and has bee ...

qualified for the CONCACAF League, but fourth-placed

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

lost to Shield winners

Club Franciscain Club Franciscain is a football (soccer), football club in Martinique, playing in the town of Le François. It plays in the Martinique's first division, the Martinique Championnat National. Honours *Martinique Championnat National **Champions (1 ...

in a playoff and failed to qualify for the CONCACAF League.

Teams

The CONCACAF Council, at its meeting on 25 July 2017 in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

approved the implementation of the following two-tier competitions for affiliated clubs of Caribbean Member Associations starting in 2018: *The Tier 1 competition, known as the

CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship The Caribbean Club Championship, also known as the CFU Club Championship or CFU Club Champions' Cup, was an annual international football competition held amongst association football clubs that are members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU). T ...

, is contested by the champions and runners-up of the top professional and semi-professional leagues in year 1 (2018), and open to only fully professional leagues in year 2 (2019) and onwards. *The Tier 2 competition, known as the

CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield The Caribbean Club Shield, also known as the CFU Club Shield, was an annual Caribbean football competition for clubs that were members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU). It was a second-tier competition to the Caribbean Club Championship, an ...

, is contested by the champions of the top leagues in Member Associations that have no professional or semi-professional leagues in year 1 (2018), and open to amateur and semi-professional leagues in year 2 (2019) and onwards. The new two-tier format of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship and CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield, as well as the teams participating in each tournament, were announced by CONCACAF on 15 December 2017. Among the 31 CFU member associations, four of them were classified as professional leagues and each may enter two teams in the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship. A total of eight teams from four associations entered the 2018 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship (officially the 2018 Flow CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship for sponsorship reasons).

Group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 21 December 2017, 11:00 EST ( UTC−5), at the CONCACAF Headquarters in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and was streamed on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four. The two group stage hosts were placed in Pot 1, while the remaining six teams were placed in Pot 2. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group. The matches were played between 31 January – 4 February 2018 (Group A) and 7–11 February 2018 (Group B). The top two teams of each group advanced to the final stage.

Group A

Host venue:

Ato Boldon Stadium The Ato Boldon Stadium is an athletics and football stadium located in Balmain, Couva, Trinidad and Tobago. It is currently the home ground of Central and Club Sando. History The stadium was constructed for the 2001 FIFA U-17 World Championship ...

Couva Couva is an urban town (48,858 in 2011 census) in west-central Trinidad, south of Port of Spain and Chaguanas and north of San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, San Fernando and Point Fortin. It is the capital and main urban centre of Couva–Tab ...

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

. All times local, AST ( UTC−4). ---- ----

Group B

Host venue:

Estadio Cibao FC Cibao FC Stadium is a football stadium in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic. It is currently used for football matches and hosts the home games of Cibao FC of the Liga Dominicana de Fútbol. The stadium holds 8,000 spectators. T ...

Santiago de los Caballeros Santiago de los Caballeros (; '' en, James, son of Zebedee, Saint James of the Knights''), often shortened to Santiago, is the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic and the fourth-largest city in the Caribbean by population. It is the cap ...

. All times local, AST ( UTC−4). ---- ----

Final stage

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

was announced as the host nation of the final stage on 1 May 2018. The matches were played between 11–16 May 2018.

Bracket

The semi-final matchups are: *Group A Winners vs. Group B Runners-up *Group B Winners vs. Group A Runners-up Host venue:

Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonii'', a '' gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anton ...

, Kingston, Jamaica. All times local, EST ( UTC−5).

Semi-finals

----

Third place match

Winners qualified for 2018 CONCACAF League. Losers advanced to CONCACAF League playoff against the 2018 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield winners for a place in the 2018 CONCACAF League.

Final

Winners qualified for

. Losers qualified for 2018 CONCACAF League.

CONCACAF League playoff

The CONCACAF League playoff was played between the 2018 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship fourth-placed team,

, and the 2018 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield winners,

, with the winners qualifying for the 2018 CONCACAF League.

Top goalscorers

References

External links

CFU Club Championship
CFUfootball.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Caribbean Club Championship 2018

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

1 2018 CONCACAF League 2019 CONCACAF Champions League January 2018 sports events in North America February 2018 sports events in North America May 2018 sports events in North America International association football competitions hosted by the Dominican Republic International association football competitions hosted by Trinidad and Tobago International association football competitions hosted by Jamaica